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IHE NEW BUSINESS 
OF FARMING 



JULIAN A. DIMOCK 



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THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



THE NEW BUSINESS 
OF FARMING 



BY 



JULIAN A. DIMOCK 




NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 






Copyright, 1918, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 



All rights reserved 



FEB -5 1918 

©CI.A4921d i 



/\. A I 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 



Introduction 



I. Size of the Farm from a Business Stand 

POINT 

II. Capital Necessary in Farming . 

III. Diversity 

IV. Big Crops vs. Normal .... 
V. Rotation of Crops .... 

VI. Competition and the Laws of Prices . 

VII. Fitting Scheme to Conditions . 

VIII. Coordination of Enterprises 

IX. The Opportunity for the Individual . 

X. Live Stock on the Farm 

XL The Farm As a Home .... 

Bibliography 



1 

10 
20 
29 
40 
49 
58 
67 
76 
84 
93 
103 
113 



THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



THE NEW BUSINESS 
OF FARMING 



INTEODUCTION 

The tale of the small bonanza farm, where 
the owner makes a fortune from three acres, 
is dear to the heart of the magazine editor and 
the city reader, but it is ^'bunkum." 

The individual may make a lot of money for 
a year or two, but if the chance exists for an- 
other to do the same thing in that region the 
claim will have been preempted by a neighbor 
long before the quick-footed city man can reach 
the spot. Production will increase until the op- 
portunity is overwhelmed. The produce will 
flood the market until the producer cannot give 
it away. Profits will drop out of sight. If 
the space writer again visits his wonderland 

1 



2 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

he will be confronted by the signs, ^^To Lef 
and ^^For Sale." He will wonder what was 
the trouble, for he remembers that he took every 
precaution to verify his information. He pon- 
dered over the balance sheets and footed up 
the debit and credit columns of the farmers' 
accounts. 

Every one is looking for a gold mine, and 
big returns from a small investment in land 
look about as good as a mine. Actual mines, 
however, are limited in number, but the acres 
of land are limitless and the production thereof 
is governed by the demand. An acre of ground 
will grow four tons of hay whenever the price 
of that commodity justifies the expense of mak- 
ing it do so. In the meantime it will yield 
scarcely better than, one ton. If a man makes 
a thousand dollars a year profit from an acre 
of celery or strawberries there will be a rush 
to that mining-field. People will flock in, and 
competition will turn the profits into losses. 
The first man on the job had better sell out to 
the newcomers before the big crops flood the 
market. If his profits come from acres of ap- 



INTRODUCTION 3 

pies he may safely hold the property much 
longer, for it takes many years to raise apple- 
trees to the bearing age, and competition will 
be delayed. 

There are plenty of individual opportunities 
in farming as in everything else. The best 
equipped will win out. One man succeeds where 
another fails. If you want to farm, for heaven's 
sake farm ! Do not be discouraged by the ob- 
stacles, for they make the fun. Seventy per 
cent, of city business men fail at some period 
of their lives, but comparatively few farmers 
have a visit from the sheriff. Although many 
city men who go back to the land live in dread 
of such a visit they rarely go to their neighbors 
for advice. They keep on with their "modem 
methods'' instead of owning up that their neigh- 
bors know more than they do. If it pays to 
add two tons of fertilizer to the hay-field, the 
farmer will do it. If it doesn't pay, the farmer 
will not do it. The city man will try it out if 
he can figTire out a profit, but the bets are even 
that his figuring is wrong, that he has omitted 



4 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

some vital factor. He may figure in this 
fashion : 

Normal yield, 1 ton per acre . . $15.00 

Forced yield, 3 tons $45.00 

Cost of fertilizer 25.00 20.00 



Net revenue from fertilizer. . . $5.00 

His neighbor will tell him that he "hasn't 
found it paid to put phosphate on old seeding.'' 
He doesn't always know why, but it doesn't 

pay. 

In the above figuring the city man has omit- 
ted the charge for applying the fertilizer and 
the harvesting cost of two tons of hay. These 
items will make his use of chemicals an actual 
loss instead of profit. He can even quote many 
bulletins in support of his position; but, bulle- 
tins or no bulletins, his neighbor was right. 

The principles underlying the business of 
farming are beginning to be understood. They 
are as simple as any fundamental principles, 
but because of the complexities entering into 



INTEODUCTION 5 

farm life it has been difficult to extract them. 
One man may raise an acre of violets and sell 
them far above the cost of production because 
of some novel advertising scheme which con- 
nects him with the wearer of flowers. His in- 
come arises from his ability as an advertiser 
and not as a raiser of violets. Moreover, if a 
few more acres of violets were raised, the mar- 
ket would be so flooded with the flowers that a 
bunch would be given away with each copy of 
a penny newspaper. 

Special crops and special markets do not en- 
ter into the discussion of general principles. 
Competition will take care of the first in quick 
order and will gradually suck the excessive 
profit from the latter. 

Farming is a conservative business, with 
small chance of large loss. No man on earth 
can change the economic law that the return on 
the investment from such a business will be 
small. 

The itemized capital account of 759 typical 
farms in New York will show just how conser- 
vative is the investment; 



THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



73% 


Eeal Estate 


16% 


Live Stock 


7% 


Machinery and Tools 


2% 


Feed and Seed 


1% 


Produce (unsold) 


1% 


Cash 



100% 

Nine hundred and ninety-nine business men 
out of a thousand, on simply looking over that 
statement, would write across its face; *'Slow 
Returns.'' 

And yet those very same men would buy a 
farm for $100,000.00, one-half of which would 
be for fine dwellings, magnificent views, fancy 
barns and what not, and plan out a system of 
farming which was to show a net profit of $10,- 
000.00 the first year. 

It cannot be done. 

More than one man hasi built a dairy barn at 
a cost per cow of a thousand dollars. Interest, 
insurance, depreciation, will make an annual 
charge of $100.00 per animal for housing alone. 
Few cows bring in this sum gross in a year. A 



INTEODUCTION 7 

building sufficiently good for the production of 
certified milk, with some thought for architec- 
tural design, can be erected for a charge of 
$100.00 per cow. This is the fair ' ' farm value ' ^ 
of a barn for cows, unchanged by its actual cost. 

We must differentiate clearly between the 
business of farming and the purchase or mak- 
ing of a home. Any expense which one can af- 
ford is justified in the latter, but every last cent 
should be counted in the reckoning of the for- 
mer. When one selects a site for a manufactur- 
ing plant, no report is made of the magnificent 
sunset over the bay. The bay is spoken of in 
terms of cheap transportation. 

It was only when the investigators collected 
the data from a large number of farms and 
worked out their principles from facts rather 
than deducing them from theories that they 
found out how simple the fundamentals were. 

The more capital, the bigger will be the re- 
turns ; the larger the business, the more econo- 
mies that can be introduced and consequently 
the higher the ratio of profits ; the more hours 
of the man's time profitably employed, the 



8 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

greater the labor income; the greater the di- 
versity of work (within limits), the better the 
yearly use of labor ; the larger the farm, the less 
per acre cost of machinery and the more effi- 
cient its use. Every office boy can quote these 
business axioms ; but farming did not seem like 
a business and such rules were thought not to 
apply. 

Many a city man has written to an agricul- 
tural college for help. He has announced that 
he has saved five thousand dollars and wishes 
to buy a farm. Until he is ready to undertake 
the job himself he wishes to hire a graduate to 
manage the farm. Will they please advise as to 
farms and recommend a graduate capable of the 
contract. 

How many well-paid managers would a con- 
servative city business of five thousand dollars' 
capital support! And remember that in farm- 
ing the capital is turned ,over only once a year, 
at the best. 

Gulliver proclaimed the benefit to humanity 
of raising two blades of grass where but one 
grew before. It sounded too good to be dis- 



INTRODUCTION 9 

puted, and has come down through the years 
since as an agricultural gospel. Any engineer 
could have told us about the cost of overcoming 
inertia, and it would not have been hard to fig- 
ure that it might be expensive to speed up the 
land. Only nobody thought of it that way. 

Every one who reads the magazines remem- 
bers the tale of the minister who made fifteen 
acres of land care for thirty head of livestock. 
His books showed a profit, but his bank account 
did not reflect the same ratio of prosperty. To- 
day the Farm Management experts can show us 
how this farmer would have made a much larger 
income if he had taken his capital back to any 
good farming section and used it in the regular 
methods employed in that region. No pyro- 
technics, no unprecedented yields, just a regu- 
lar weekly profit would have been rolling in 
fifty-two times a year. 

These principles of agriculture, simple busi- 
ness rules, are the factors that make success in 
farming. 



CHAPTER I 

SIZE OF THE FAKM FKOM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT 

When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long 
a man's legs should be, he made his famous 
reply that they should be long enough to reach 
from the man's body to the ground. In like 
manner a man's farm should be big enough to 
supply him with work — steady, efficient, eco- 
nomical work. His job is to raise food for the 
human family as cheaply as possible. His busi- 
ness is to make a profit for himself in doing it. 

The world wants cheap food. Every cent 
that can be cut from the cost of the twenty 
million breakfast tables of this country leaves 
so much more to be spent in other ways. If the 
food of the family costs less, the children can 
have warmer clothing, the talking-machine can 
have a few extra cans of Caruso or Mme. Sem- 

10 



SIZE OF THE FAEM 11 

brich, or the whole family can take an occa- 
sional joy ride. 

We have those things to-day because food 
does cost less than it did generations ago. Then 
it took the farmer ^s family and their united 
efforts to raise enough food for themselves, 
with very little to spare. It required weeks 
for the New Hampshire farmer to haul a single 
load of produce to the Boston market. It is 
obvious that there was not much time to devote 
to luxuries 

The Chinese do not have these luxuries be- 
cause they are too busy raising food to support 
life. The production per man is so low that 
seventy-five per cent, of the population are 
farmers. Only one man out of every four is 
left free to do other work, and that will not 
supply an abundance of automobiles or build 
many miles of railroad. 

In a few years only fifteen per cent, of Amer- 
icans will be farmers. That is, six out of every 
seven will be free for other business. In China 
each farmer has two acres of land. In America 
each farm has one hundred and forty acres. 



12 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

America has plenty of farm land. Labor 
costs more than land. So the economic factor 
in farming is not the amount of produce which 
an acre of land will raise but the amount which 
a man can produce. It is the man who raises 
two blades of grass where man raised but one 
before who is the benefactor of his race; not 
the one who forces a given spot of ground to 
double its production. That may cost too much 
in human labor, and human labor is what we 
wish to save. 

In building up a farm business, then, we must 
consider land in terms of labor. It is not good 
business to have so little land that labor is 
wasted or, for any reason, used inefficiently. It 
is better to have a few acres of land idle at an 
interest cost of a dollar or two an acre rather 
than to have a three-hundred-dollar man sitting 
around in front of the stove. 

It costs nearly as much to keep a team of 
horses as it does to keep a hired man. But a 
horse will do ten times the field work that a 
man can do. So, to adapt the size of the farm 



SIZE OF THE FARM 13 

to economical horse labor is even more impor- 
tant than to adapt it to man labor. 

If a man is alone on a farm he is working at 
a disadvantage in numberless ways. The 
horses are idle while he is doing chores. If he 
takes a trip to town the whole machinery of the 
farm stops, for horses, tools, and man are all 
off their work. There are a thousand and one 
little jobs that two men can do in a minute that 
would take one man fifteen to do alone. 

A man is non-divisible; he cannot do two 
jobs at once. But part of the cost of a horse 
is the necessary oversight of its work by a 
driver. That can be divided, for one man can 
drive four horses as well as he can one. And 
much of the modern machinery is made for the 
use of a three- or a four-horse team. The re- 
sult of this is shown in the census figures for 
ten years. In 1880 a man cared for twenty- 
three acres of crops, but in 1890 he was caring 
for thirty-one acres. This simply meant that 
by the use of four-horse teams a man was cov- 
ering more land in the same length of time, for 
during that period the amount of land that a 



14 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

horse could care for was unchanged. The sav- 
ing was in the time of the driver. 

If one man tries to care for ten cows and 
two horses, the team will be idle much of the 
time while the man is doing chores. But if 
two men care for twenty cows and four horses, 
the team can be kept busy all the time and there 
will be a direct saving in the time required for 
the care of the cows, for it does not take twice 
as long to look after twenty cows as it does to 
care for ten. The economic unit of man labor 
on a farm is not one man but two. The economic 
unit of horse labor is not a two-horse team, but 
a four-horse team. 

This brings us to the unit of size for the 
farm. It should have at least enough acres to 
keep two men and four horses busy all the year 
round. Upon this as a basis we can build until 
we strike other factors which limit the profit- 
able size. 

Labor on a farm cannot be organized as can 
that in a factory. It is of a character that re- 
quires individual initiative and is rarely of a 
kind so that a gang of men can work together. 



SIZE OF THE FARM 15 

One man, or two, work by themselves, perhaps 
out of sight and sound of the next man. Exig- 
encies of weather, insects, or other conditions 
may cause a complete change of work at an 
hour's notice and the whole organization be 
upset. An overseer in a factory can inspect 
the work of a thousand employees in thirty 
minutes, but it would take him a year really to 
inspect the work of a thousand men on a farm. 
Moreover the distance to the fields from the 
barn becomes a serious factor before we mul- 
tiply that first unit of size very many times. 

The biggest saving is between the farm too 
small to be efficient and the first unit of size, 
for the area farmed by one hundred dollars' 
worth of labor is Rye times as great on a hun- 
dred-and-seventy-five-acre farm as on one of 
thirty acres. 

Horse labor is more efficient on the large than 
on the small area. On a fifty-acre farm one 
horse cares for twenty-one acres of cultivated 
crops, but on a two-hundred-and-sixty-acre 
farm one horse will care for forty-nine acres of 
crops. While a man will produce twice as much 



16 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

on a hundrecl-and-fifty-acre farm as on one of 
only fifty acres. On tlie larger farms, then, the 
labor of horses and men, the chief items of cost 
in raising crops, is cut in half. 

The small farm cannot afford sufficient 
machinery to do the work economically; but 
neither can the farmer afford to be without the 
machinery. He must overload his investment, 
per acre, in tools, for the same tools that are 
required to farm two hundred and fifty acres 
are needed for a farm of fifty. But in the 
latter case the investment, per acre, would be 
five times as much. 

The equipment for one hundred and twenty- 
five acres of land — horses, men and tools — ^will, 
with very little additional cost, farm one hun- 
dred and seventy-five acres. It is not sur- 
prising to find that the farmer's labor income 
jumps fifty-eight per cent, with this additional 
fifty acres. When the farm runs above two 
hundred acres in size, some duplication in 
machinery is required and the proportion of in- 
creased return to the farmer becomes smaller. 
At about three hundred acres, the duplication is 



SIZE OF THE FAEM 17 

necessary all around and the limit of economy 
under one management is reached. 

The relative capital tied up in barns and 
house is much greater on the small farm than 
on the large one. 

The records show that in one county in New 
York State the average farmer having eighty 
acres of land earned only $370.00 for his own 
labor, while the one farming a hundred and 
seventy-five acres received $635.00 for his time ; 
and the farmer cultivating two hundred and 
sixty acres received a labor income of $1,000.00. 
Less than 3% of the farmers having only one 
hundred acres made a labor income of $1,000.00, 
but 33% of those using two hundred acres or 
more earned $1,000.00. It is true that a man on 
a large farm has a chance to lose more than the 
one on a small farm, but he has, at least, a much 
greater chance to make more. 

We must not go to the other extreme and 
decide that the larger the farm the bigger the 
return. At a certain place complete duplica- 
tion of equipment becomes necessary and the 
distances between fields will more than offset 



18 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

the economies practicable, and at this point it 
is better to divide the large acreage up into 
separate farms. But as between the farm of 
fifty acres and that of two hundred the differ- 
ence is not the difference of a few men and 
many, but in half-time and full-time work for 
the same number. 

Profit is the difference between the selling 
price and the cost of production. The pro- 
ducer makes in proportion to the difference 
between these two. The passerby is impressed 
by the sight of idle land. The horses eating 
their heads off inside the barn are not in evi- 
dence. It is therefore a popular conception 
that idle land means poor farming. Really it 
is the fat, sleek, underworked, well-groomed 
horses that mean poor farming and the men 
spending their time around the stove in the 
store instead of riding on a gang-plow behind 
a four-horse team. 

Land is only the vehicle for work. It is the 
least part of the cost of producing crops. Labor 
is the chief item. So land should be subordi- 
nated to labor. The size of the farm should be 



SIZE OF THE FARM 19 

that on wliicli a given amount of labor will 
produce the greatest result. 

The figures given in this sketch are taken 
from statistics published concerning New 
York State conditions, but will hold, with due 
allowance for type of farming and topography, 
in any part of the country. 



CHAPTEE II 

CAPITAL NECESSARY IN FARMING 

The capital account of a farm is a measure 
of the size of the business. If all farms carried 
on the same type of farming and all farm land 
was worth the same price per acre, we could 
use the acre as a measure of size. But the flor- 
ist, with a few acres of high-priced land under 
glass, may have more money invested in his 
business than the cattle raiser w^ith a thousand 
acres of range land, or the truck grower may 
intensify until the cost of his crops from a sin- 
gle acre compares with that of a whole cotton 
farm in the South. 

Analyses of farm accounts have shown that 
the farmer's return is in proportion to the capi- 
tal invested, up to the amount where the size be- 
comes unmanageable because of physical fac- 
tors. That is, the larger the business, the big- 

20 



CAPITAL NECESSAKY IN FARMING 21 

ger the return, and not only that, but the big- 
ger the percentage of the return, because of 
economies in management which can be intro- 
duced in the larger business. 

Such a statement belongs in the primary de- 
partment of finance. Yet how many men be- 
lieve it to-day? How many deluded city people 
go to the farm expecting big returns from lit- 
tle capital? There will be less trouble in the 
world when people have elemental facts clearly 
before them. 

If a man invests his money in bonds or stocks, 
or puts it away in a savings bank he expects to 
receive interest for that money. If a man goes 
to an office every day he expects to receive a 
pay envelope at the end of the week. If he in- 
vests his money in the concern for which he 
works he will expect pay for his money and pay 
for his work. Capital is needed to provide an 
opportunity for the man to work, but man's 
work is required to give capital an opportunity 
to earn interest. Each must pay the other and 
any system of accounting must take cognizance 
of this fact. 



22 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

The farm owner puts both capital and work 
into his farm business and he should be paid 
for both — interest on his money and wages for 
his time. 

When we realize that farming is a conserva- 
tive business, and the rate of return therefore 
low, we begin to see why the small farm cannot 
pay. 

Because of unusual ability the individual may 
be capable of earning a large wage, but that ca- 
pability is very much more likely to bring re- 
wards in a less conservative business than farm- 
ing. There are opportunities for speculation 
in agriculture. If the farmer devotes his whole 
place to raising potatoes in a year when that 
crop brings a high price he will receive the re- 
turn of speculation. 

Without sufficient money the farmer cannot 
even earn interest on that which he has, let 
alone earn a wage for himself. In the city a 
man may run a business on other people's capi- 
tal and be, in reality, an employee. The law- 
yer is a clerk for his clients, the insurance agent 
is an employee, the stock broker is working for 



CAPITAL NECESSAEY IN FARMING 23 

his customers on commission which is merely a 
euphonious name for wages. But the farmer 
is neither an employee nor a broker; he is 
working for himself and must supply all the 
capital needed in his business. 

The charge for the farmer's labor takes prec- 
edent of every other. The money invested in 
a farm cannot hope to bring in a return except 
through a man's labor. It is illogical to expect 
a small capital to pay a man three hundred dol- 
lars a year and earn interest besides. Indeed, 
it is asking dollars to be unusually nimble to 
expect them even to provide a man with the 
opportunity to earn day wages unless they are 
present in sufficient numbers. 

How does this theory work out in practice? 
In one section in New York State not a single 
man who had less than four thousand dollars 
invested in his farm made a labor income of 
$1,000.00, and only one made $800.00. When 
we reach those with an investment of from 
$4,000.00 to $6,000.00 we find one man in twelve 
making three dollars a day for his time and 
work. But when we look among the farmers 



24 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

who have an investment of $15,000.00 we find 
that forty-six per cent, of them made more than 
$1,000.00 a year, over and above inte on 

their investment. The mere use of that amount 
of money in the business allowed them to pay 
interest on it and to receive a good wage 
their time. 

The small farms were not big enough busi- 
nesses to pay. Wlien the total income of a 
man is $500.00 it is difficult to make much of a 
net income. Even fifty per cent, profit will not 
pay him the wages of a hired man, to say noth- 
ing of interest. 

The need for money is more pressing than is 
the need for its proper distribution. A man 
without capital is almost helpless, but the one 
who invests it with poor judgment is simply 
handicapped. The average cost for labor on 
the farms of the country is somewhere in the 
vicinity of forty per cent, of all costs, but we 
have found that on the large farms one hundred 
dollars ' worth of labor farms five times the area 
that it will on the small farms. No wonder the 
big farmer makes money! 



CAPITAL NECESSAEY IN FARMING 25 

The most important factor in successful f arm-^ 
ing is the size of the business. The highest 
prrT^viare made when size, diversity, and good 
proauction are combined in a well-balanced 
business ; but it is almost impossible to make a 
c'M^ profit unless one has plenty of capital 
vw. which to work. 

Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa are wealthy farm- 
ing communities. The land is productive and 
conditions are propitious. Yet when aU the 
farms in one county of each state were investi- 
gated it was found that one farmer out of every 
three was paying for the privilege of working 
on his own farm. He had to work wdth his 
money to make it pay interest. Tlie family lived 
well because the capital invested paid enough 
to allow of good living but the head of the 
household was working for nothing. 

The farmer does not talk in terms of finance 
but he knows more about the business of farm- 
ing than people give him credit for. The Illi- 
nois owner of a farm does not exert himself 
to make a labor income, because he has enough 
to live on without it, but the tenant fanner of 



26 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

that state exerts himself. His books are bal- 
anced for him each year. He must pay interest 
to the landlord and have enough to live on 
left over. His own investment is usually too 
small to pay any considerable part of his living, 
and there is little chance for him to misunder- 
stand his position. The tenant farmer all over 
the country makes more money on his capital 
than does the owner. 

The tenant farmer occupies a strong strategic 
position in the business of farming to-day. He 
has the advantage of the use of the combined 
capital furnished by himself and his landlord 
and he has the initiative furnished by the neces- 
sity for earning a labor income over and above 
the interest demanded by his landlord's in- 
vestment. 

The results found in Indiana, Illinois, and 
Iowa are only typical of those found elsewhere ; 
for wherever a community becomes so pros- 
perous that the farmers can live on the returns 
from their farm investment, the labor income 
begins to flatten out. Necessity ceases to push. 

A hired manager rarely makes a farm pay. 



CAPITAL NECESSARY IN FARMING 27 

It is seemingly impossible for one man to rnn 
a farm for another and make it a business suc- 
cess. 

The city man who wishes to leave his present 
position to take up farming should remember 
that the average farmer, trained to the work 
from his youth, does not make day wages unless 
he has a capital investment of $4,000. And 
after a full day's toil the wages of a farm hand 
will not look very large to the man from the 
city when he compares them with the weekly 
check to which he has been accustomed. 

There are various ways to decrease the farm 
capital. A fancy barn that costs more than a 
barn has any right to, judged by the capacity of 
the animals housed therein to make returns, is 
one way. A set of ^^modeP' chicken houses will 
cost more than the hens can hope to repay. 
Running a farm on land that has been exploited 
to more than its value for agricultural pur- 
poses is another way. Equipping a place with 
too many horses and keeping them sleek and 
well groomed is another method adapted to re- 
ducing the profits of a farm. Too many men 



28 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

for the work is a certain way to the poor-house. 
Few farmers make these mistakes, while most 
city men make some of them. 

There is a way td increase the capital and 
that is to rent a place and so let the landlord 
provide the real estate. Then all of the farm- 
er 's capital can be put into producing stock and 
equipment. This is a thoroughly practicable 
method and one that is being increasingly put 
into practice by young country-bred farmers all 
over the United States. 

It is better to hire a good farm than to own 
a poor one. 

The reader may be discouraged by this list 
of troubles in the way of the farmer. They are 
given because the knowledge may save him a lot 
of worry and any amount of tribulation if he 
decides to try farming. 



CHAPTER III 



DIVERSITY 



There are three big reasons for diversity on 
the farm. 

Diversity is an insurance against crop fail- 
ure, it is a method of equalizing work through- 
out the season, and it almost automatically 
provides a rotation of crops. 

There are three little reasons against diver- 
sity, and they are: 

First, that the specialized •workman becomes 
more skillful than the one who does many kinds 
of work. Second, a farm with one crop can 
have a better supply of tools adapted to that 
crop than can one with many industries. Third, 
a small farm can do business on a larger scale 
if all the product is in one specialty. It is 
sometimes given as a favorable factor for spe- 
cialized farming that it is easier for the farmer 

29 



30 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

to get a vacation, but this is merely another 
way of stating that such farming does not pro- 
vide work throughout the year. 

Insurance against crop failure is especially 
important, because the risks are many. The 
manufacturer buys his raw material, makes it 
up into the finished product and sells that com- 
pleted product. His risk is the chance that the 
selling price may be below the cost of the 
raw material plus the expense of finishing it. 
Weather conditions cannot prevent him from 
turning the crude article into the refined, and 
he can insure himself against fire and strikes. 

The farmer puts his seed into the ground in 
hopeful anticipation that weather and insects 
will permit it to grow, that he will be allowed 
to harvest the crop, and finally, that he will be 
able to sell that crop at a price which will yield 
a profit. Continued rains may rot the seed; 
late frosts may kill the young shoots ; bugs may 
devour the older plants; early freezes or hail- 
storms may destroy the crop at the last mo- 
ment; or wet weather may interfere with har- 
vesting. 



DIVEKSITY 31 

Elementary business prudence suggests in- 
surance or a division of risks ; and that is one 
thing that diversity does for the farmer. Early 
rains will help the hay crop and hinder certain 
others ; hot days and nights will make the corn 
grow but worry the cows ; late rains may give 
an extra cut of rowen even while they cause 
the potatoes to decay in the ground. The price 
of any one crop may be abnormally low in any 
given year, but the chance of hitting a wrong 
market with many is reduced with every addi- 
tional crop. It is better to have the income dis- 
tributed throughout the year, for it is then 
easier to make it meet the demands. If capital 
is limited, money must be borrowed to meet the 
expenses and then paid off at the end of the 
season when the crops are sold. This is un- 
pleasant, for one likes to have the ^'feer' of a 
little money once in a while. If enough money 
is within reach to pay expenses, then a lump 
sum in the bank is dangerous, as it begets the 
habit of spending. More than either of these is 
the mental effect of having small amounts drib- 
bling in throughout the year. It keeps up a 



32 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

man's courage and makes him face the world 
with a twinkle in his eye. This phase of the 
matter is especially important for a man from 
the city, accustomed to weekly or monthly 
checks. Despise not the cow, with her daily 
yield of milk and butter. 

Diversity equalizes the farm w^ork and 
spreads it over a larger part of the season. 
Even the cautious writers of the Bureau of 
Farm Management at Washington forget their 
habitual care when writing of diversity. One 
of them says: '^If the working equipment can 
be all kept busy on paying enterprises, success 
is almost assured. *' 

Labor is the chief item of cost in farming. 
Large area contributes to economy in labor; 
therefore the size of the farm is important. 
Capital is needed to buy the large farm or to 
intensify the few acres of the florist or the 
truck gardener so as to economize labor. Diver- 
sity is as important as either size or capital, 
because it contributes to economy of labor and 
the utilization of equipment. It corresponds 
in business to the use of the by-product which 
often makes the whole profit of the concern, 



DIVERSITY 33 

while the main product is simiDly run at cost 
or even a little below. 

The hardest problem which the farmer has 
is to plan tlie various enterprises on his farm to 
yield the greatest yearly return. It is easy 
enough to pick out the one most profitable en- 
terprise, but he must determine the combina- 
tion which, taken together, will produce the 
biggest profit, and that means very largely the 
most persistent and profitable use of men and 
horses. 

The old-time farmer answered it with the 
single crop of the dairy. Milking kept him 
fairly busy throughout the year, and the har- 
vest season found him overworked for a few 
weeks. He could milk ten cows and have plenty 
of time to drive to the creamery and stop a 
while at the store. It was pleasant and profit- 
able, but it was too simple and competition 
entered into the game. The production of milk 
and butter increased until they were sold at a 
price that did not pay the producer full-time 
wages for half-time work. This is the con- 
dition on many farms to-day, for all of the 
owners have not learned to change their ways, 



34 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

and the average cow does not pay at the present 
price of milk or butter. But the cow can be 
the most valuable animal on the place. If she 
is to be kept as the single crop of the farm she 
must be unusually good to pay ; but if she is to 
be used simply as the principal product, then 
she is profitable to the whole organization even 
if she herself does not produce a profit, for she 
keeps the organization and the organization 
can be used with small added expense to pro- 
duce by-products that will yield a profit to the 
farmer. 

The simplest way to understand the results 
of diversity is to study a couple of actual farm 
accounts. These are not presented as typical 
farms but are used simply to illustrate the point 
in discussion. 

FAEM NUMBEE ONE. 211 ACEES 

Capital 
4 horses, 31 cows, 30 sheep, 

other stock $3,497.00 

Land, tools, etc 11,562.00 



$15,059.00 



DIVERSITY 35 

Receipts 

Wheat $ 357.00 

Oats 366.00 

Buckwheat 20.00 

Hay 110.00 

Potatoes 1,797.00 

Apples 12.00 

Cabbage 118.00 

Milk 3,841.00 

Cattle 536.00 

Eggs 69.00 

Lambs 224.00 

Wool 63.00 

$7,513.00 

Expenses 

Labor and board $1,286.00 

Seed 90.00 

Feeds 1,193.00 

Fertilizer 78.00 

Machinery 93.00 

Buildings and fences 150.00 

Miscellaneous 319.00 

$3,209.00 

Farm income $4,304.00 

Interest on capital at 5% 753.00 

Labor income $3,551.00 



36 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

If this farmer had sold only milk and cattle 
his receipts would have been $4,377.00, which 
would have left him a labor income of only 
$415.00. Or, taking out all the expenses which 
could possibly be charged against the additional 
crops : 

Extra labor $500.00 

Seeds 75.00 

Fertilizer 78.00 $415.00 

Machinery (i/o) 46.50 

Miscel. (1/2) 159.50 

859.00 



Labor income $1,274.00 

as against $3,551 for the diversified farm. In 
business parlance this difference is the value of 
the by-products. 

FAEM NUMBER TWO. 225 ACRES 

Capital 
6 horses, 30 cows, 20 heif- 
ers, 3 "bulls, other stock. $5,036.00 
Real estate, tools, etc 16,750.00 

$21,786.00 



DIVERSITY 37 

Receipts 

Milk retailed $6,400.00 

Cattle 2,255.00 

Miscel 641.00 . 

$9,296.00 

Expenses 

Labor and board $525.00 

Seeds 50.00 

Feeds 570.00 

Lime 50.00 

Buildings and repairs . . . 500.00 
Machinery and repairs . . . 85.00 

All else 110.00 



$1,890.00 

Farm income $7,406.00 

Interest 5% 1,089.00 

Family labor 100.00 

Labor income (father and son) $6,217.00 

Apparently this farmer specialized on dairy- 
ing, but in reality he diversified, for he (1) pro- 
duced market milk, (2) raised pure-bred cattle, 
(3) retailed milk. 



38 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

Let us figure on the additional profit whicli 
this diversification brought to him. 

If his cows had done as well as those on Farm 
No. 1 he would have received for milk at whole- 
sale $3,900.00. If his stock had sold for the 
same price as those on Farm No. 1 he would 
have had a cattle Income of $750.00. The mis- 
cellaneous items would have remained the same, 
giving total receipts of 

Expenses $5,291.00 

Farm Income 1,890.00 

$3,401.00 

Interest $1,089.00 

Family labor 100.00 

1,189.00 

Labor income $2,212.00 

The diversity of retailing the milk and raising 
pure-bred stock made an additional profit of 
$4,005.00. 

These are extreme cases and must not be 
taken as typical, but they serve to show the ad- 



DIVERSITY 39 

vantage of diversity in farm management. An 
increase of 25% to 100% in receipts, with very 
little added cost, is, however, fairly represen- 
tative. 



CHAPTER IV 



BIG CROPS VS, NORMAL 



Pliny quotes a maxim of the ancients: 
'* Nothing is so disadvantageous as to cultivate 
the land in the highest style of perfection." 

Modern theorists advocate intensive cultiva- 
tion of the land. Back-to-the-landers have set 
forth to prove this contention. They have 
raised two hundred bushels where but one grew 
before and have felt that they were teaching 
the community a lesson in agriculture. 

I remember the feeling of elation with which 
I compared potato yields with the shrewdest 
farmer in the neighborhood. At this moment 
I can see the twinkle in his eye as he nodded his 
head in approval and said, '^ Pretty good yield, 
that. ' ' The next year his potato yield remained 
at the same old figure of one hundred bushels. 

40 



BIG CROPS vs. NORMAL 41 

He did not profit by the lesson ; but I did, for I 
began to figure up the costs. 

I raised two hundred bushels of potatoes and 
sold them for seventy-five cents a bushel. My 
receipts were $150.00. But the costs were 
$148.00. I made a profit of $2.00 on the trans- 
action. 

My neighbor had one hundred bushels to sell 
for which he received $75.00. His expenses 
were $66.00, and his profit $9.00. 

Neither of us got the best possible return. 
If he had used imported seed and a little more 
fertilizer, probablj^ his returns would have been 
higher, while it is quite possible that I could 
have cut my fertilizer bill and my spraying costs 
to advantage. But the point is not what might 
have happened but what did. The way to make 
money on potatoes is to have the cost per bushel 
less than the price at which they are sold. My 
neighbor beat me; his farming experience was 
a better business asset than my imported ideas 
of big yields. 

The next year I raised my yield and inci- 
dentally the costs. My land produced three 



42 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

hundred bushels of potatoes, but I established a 
market for my product at a higher price than 
my neighbor could command. And I did it be- 
cause of the confidence which the good yield 
gave me. I became a salesman. I sold to the 
best stores at a higher price and held a quantity 
of potatoes for sale as ^'seed'^ at a price deter- 
mined by the quantity produced per acre in my 
field. 

My neighbor was the better farmer, but I was 
the better salesman. We each won out in our 
own specialty. 

Our section is not a potato region; neither 
soil nor physical characteristics are adapted to 
their economical cultivation, and so the cost 
figures have no value save to illustrate a single 
concrete instance of Yankee shrewdness vs. un- 
digested *'book learning." 

The beginner is sure to overestimate the im- 
portance of large returns per acre. He cannot 
banish from his mind the image of the big crop 
as a badge of success in agriculture. He will 
point to the comparative per acre yield of pota- 
toes in this country and Germany and conclude 



BIG CROPS vs. NORMAL 43 

that the American farmer does not know his 
business, for *'made in Germany '^ was once the 
slogan of constructive ability. 

Here are some of the figures taken from New 
York farms : 

Potatoes Oats Hay 

Rent of land $4.42 $4.09 $3.78 

Cost of man, horse 

and equipment labor 42.19 11.15 4.49 
Other costs 22.00 6.28 3.44 

Total costs $68.61 $21.52 $11.71 

The use of the land is about one-sixteenth the 
cost of growing potatoes. It is less than one- 
fifth the cost of the oat crop and a third that of 
the cost of a hay crop. If the farmer troubles 
himself about the cost of the land for the potato 
crop he may overlook some other figures. 

A man cannot plant more than an acre a day 
by hand, but a man, a team, and a $50.00 ma- 
chine can plant five acres in a day. A man can- 
not dig an acre of potatoes in less than six days, 
and he will be mighty tired at the end of the 
sixth day even at that. But a man, a four- 



44 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

horse team and a $100.00 digger will put the po- 
tatoes from six acres on top of the ground 
inside of ten hours. 

Besides the direct saving in costs, which 
amounts to many times the land rent, is the item 
of insurance ; for, when a crop is ready to har- 
vest, the sooner it is put under cover the fewer 
the chances for loss from the elements. 

The problem of Germany has been to be self- 
sustaining on a given amount of land ; the prob- 
lem of the American farmer is entirely differ- 
ent. Each knows his own business. 

The following table of costs of increasing the 
wheat yield is taken from a report of Sir John 
Lawes and covers experiments over a period of 
fifty years. Wheat is figured at a dollar a bushel 
and 43 pounds of nitrogen at $6.50. 

Value Cost of 



Yield Gain 


of 
gain 


gam in 
nitrogen Profit 


Plot No. 5 15 






Plot No. 6 24 9 


$9.00 


$6.50 $2.50 


Plot No. 7 33 9 


9.00 


6.50 2.50 


Plot No. 8 36% 3% 


3.75 


6.50 Loss 2.75 



BIG CEOPS vs. NORMAL 45 

The practical farmer will figure on the net 
cost before he concludes to add nitrogen to his 
land. It will cost him fifty cents a bushel to 
raise wheat; so instead of showing a profit 
every bushel of increased yield in the above 
table shows an actual loss. The old fellows 
were right: it is ^^disadvantageous to cultivate 
land in the highest style of perfection.'^ 

It is only when a shortage of land and an in- 
creased supply of labor changes the proportion 
between labor costs and land rent that it is wise 
to begin to economize in land by putting more 
labor on each acre to increase its yield. The 
slow working of the factors controlling this 
principle are to be seen in the crop yields in 
this country to-day. Land is rising in value 
while the productive cost of labor, thanks to 
modern machinery, has fallen; therefore the 
trend on production is upward. Man is con- 
servative and does not keep up with the pro- 
cession; so we have the result that the best 
farmers are raising 25% more crops per acre 
than the average. Which is merely another way 



46 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

of saying that the poorer farmers are lagging 
behind the economical unit of yield. 

In China land is high and labor low, so we 
have the extreme case of transplanting separate 
plants of wheat so as to get the highest possible 
yield from the acre, a practice that is beyond 
the conception of the American mind. 

No rule, save the general one that 125% of 
the average yield cf this country is usually de- 
sirable, can be given for the amount of crops 
which land in the United States should produce. 
Each farmer must work out the profit and loss 
account for himself. His job is to make the 
largest possible difference between cost of pro- 
duction and selling price for his farm products. 
If a special market raises the selling price, the 
cost of production may rise correspondingly 
and yet the producer not lose money despite his 
uneconomic handling of his field costs. The law 
of compensation is pretty certain to care for 
most discrepancies, and the man who can sell to 
the best advantage seldom has the ability to 
produce in the most economical way. 

A logical deduction is that in an era of high 



BIG CROPS vs. NOEMAL 47 

prices the yield per acre increases. The higher 
the price at which wheat can be sold, the more 
fertilizer the farmer can afford to put on his 
land, the more work he can give his fields, and 
the bigger the yield to the acre. The reverse is 
true in practice. The higher the price of wheat 
the less the average yield per acre over a period 
of years. 

The reason is not hard to discover. I made 
part of it myself. When the war put wheat over 
the dollar mark I planted wheat on land that 
was not adapted to it. My yield was away be- 
low the average of the country. What I did on 
my farm, farmers everywhere did. Farmers 
know how to increase production, and the 
cheapest way is to plant more land, not to spend 
more money on land already in use. 

The farmer knew more about the subject than 
the economist, although he could not express 
himself in terms of diminishing returns or van- 
ishing profits. His bank account was less liable 
to make errors than the theories of his advisers. 
When cotton sells at hve cents per pound it 
can be profitably raised only on such land as is 



48 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

especially adapted to its culture. The yield per 
acre will be high because the land will be fertile. 
When cotton brings ten cents per pound it can 
be raised successfully on a still greater acreage 
because it will not take as fertile land to keep 
the cost under ten cents as under five. When it 
can be sold for fifteen cents a large acreage is 
given over to its production. The higher the 
price, the lower the average yield per acre. 

Long staple cotton was only successfully 
raised on the Sea Islands of the Carolinas. The 
suitable land was strictly limited. When the 
price went up, the yield per acre went up too. 



CHAPTER V 

KOTATION OF CROPS 

The worth in dollars and cents of a good 
system of rotation is suggested by some experi- 
ments conducted at the Minnesota University 
Farm. 

One acre on which wheat was grown continu- 
ously yielded a product worth $13.08 per year. 
The cost, including rent of land, labor, hire of 
machinery, etc. was $9.94, leaving a net profit of 
$3.14. 

On another acre wheat was grown in the 
standard five-year rotation and the average 
gross value of the crops for the five years 
amounted to $15.89, produced at a cost of $10.02. 
This left a net profit of $5.87 per acre, per year. 

An analysis of the soil showed that the rota- 
tion system had added both nitrogen and car- 
bon, while the continuous cropping had reduced 

49 



50 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

the supply of both, and the soil was in better 
tilth, or mechanical condition, because of the 
various crops. In other words, the crops paid 
the farmer for tlie privilege of adding fertility 
to his soil. 

When a business man discovers new mach- 
inery that will add 87% to his net profits and at 
the same time improve the condition of his 
plant, he promptly scraps his old machinery and 
installs the new style. 

The rotation used at the Minnesota Farm did 
several things. It raised the yield of wheat 
from 17.8 bushels per acre to 26. It in- 
creased the corn yield from 21.4 bushels to 
50.9. It diversified crops by adding oats, hay, 
and pasture, to corn and wheat. A further 
profit, a by-product of the business, could have 
been added by feeding these stuffs to live stock, 
thus further increasing the benefit of rotation. 
The use of labor was spread over a longer 
period and the order of crops was so arranged 
as to lower the cost of each. The grass seed 
was sown with the wheat, thus one preparation 
of the ground served for the two crops. Pas- 



EOTATION OF CROPS 51 

ture followed the hay and was merely another 
crop gathered from the same planting. The 
one-crop system belongs in the farm scrap-heap. 

For planning a system of crop rotation the 
farmer has need of a degree of intelligence that 
is not often let loose in this world. He must 
take the attitude that everybody is mostly right 
but a little wrong. His neighbors have had the 
practical experience with the local conditions, 
while the scientists have collected a vast 
amount of knowledge unknown to the average 
farmer. A judicious blending of the two is pre- 
sumably the best. But it is very risky to believe 
the system in any region to be radically wrong. 
The farm practice in Chester County, Pennsyl- 
vania, has not changed materially in a century 
and a quarter, and the experts have no radical 
changes to suggest to the farmers in that region 
to-day. 

I went straight to my farm from a four 
weeks ' course at an agricultural college. If ever 
a smattering of knowledge is a dangerous pos- 
session it is in farming. I looked at the milk 
pails of the old owner, who had run the place 



52 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

for forty-seven years, and I gazed at the steep 
pastures. ^^Cows cannot pay on this place/' 
was my off-hand decision. I watched the old 
man handle his apple crop. His trees were not 
properly pruned ; the orchard was sprayed at, if 
the fishing season did not interfere; the pick- 
ing was done carelessly by rough, uninstructed 
help ; and the sorting and packing was carried 
out in a medieval way. ** Hiram is wasting 
money every year right here,*' was my instant 
conclusion. To get rid of the cows and devote 
the time to the orchard was the obvious pro- 
cedure. I learned all that in four weeks. It 
has taken me a good many years to unlearn it. 
To-day I have a dairy — not Hiram's cows, how- 
ever — and I am running a general farm in com- 
bination with a carefully conducted orchard. 
Now I am making up the money that I lost by 
overthrowing, instead of improving upon, 
Hiram's system of cropping. 

The odds are in favor of your neighbors' 
being right. The experts at the colleges have 
the general principles down pat. Draw cards 
from both sources, but do not believe that you 



EOTATION OF CROPS 53 

have a royal flush if you have gone against the 
advice of either. 

There are so many factors entering into the 
planning of any place that it requires the keen- 
est perception to balance them properly. Dr. 
Warren, one of the leading authorities on farm 
management in the country, presents the case 
for rotation thus : 

*^ There are many reasons why crop rotation 
is a good thing. The final factor that forces 
farmers to change crops is usually either weeds, 
insects, or diseases. Crop rotation (1) helps to 
control these enemies; (2) may provide for 
keeping up the humus supply of the soil; (3) 
may provide for the growth of grass or leg- 
umes on each field; (4) often saves labor; (5) 
may keep the land occupied with crops a 
greater part of the time; (6) allows for the 
alternation of deep and shallow-rooted crops; 
(7) may provide for a balanced removal of 
plant food; (8) may control toxic substances; 
(9) systematizes farming/' 

These are self-explanatory to even laymen; 
save, possibly, number eight. It is believed that 



54 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

the roots of plants give off substances that are 
poisonous to plants of the same species. By a 
change of crops these toxines are neutralized 
and the soil is made wholesome once more for 
the original crop. 

Plant food, to be available for the growing 
crop, must be supplied in a soluble form in con- 
tact with the roots of the plant. Plant food is 
made soluble by the decomposition of organic 
matter and disintegration of mineral matter. 
Humus, or vegetable matter, in the soil hastens 
this process. Moisture is usually present when 
humus or partially decayed manure is in the 
soil, and such material permits a free circula- 
tion of air and prevents baking or packing of 
the ground. Decomposition of vegetable matter 
takes place as the result of bacterial action. 
These bacteria can only work in the presence 
of air and moisture, hence the necessity of 
humus. This decomposition forms acids which, 
in turn, disintegrate mineral matter. 

The entirely supposititious case of the Stand- 
ard Oil Company ^s throwing away aniline dyes 
and purchasing coloring matter for their kero- 



EOTATION OF CEOPS 55 

sene would be quite analogous to the case of the 
farmer who decided against the use of a rota- 
tion of crops and bought commercial fertilizers 
to keep up the fertility of his land. 

Diversity and rotation of crops tackle the 
same proposition from different angles but they 
arrive at much the same result. Rotation is 
diversity to a degree, but diversity is not neces- 
sarily rotation. Diversity, ipso facto, is a 
purely business proposition. It does not take 
account of the fertility of the soil or of its con- 
servation or improvement. It divides the risks 
of crop failures, and makes a profitable distri- 
bution of labor. Rotation is designed, primar- 
ily, to increase crops without corresponding 
cost, but with it goes the corollary of increased 
fertility. Incidentally it does produce diversity 
with the consequent efficient use of labor. 

When crops, per acre, can be increased with- 
out additional cost for fertilization or cultiva- 
tion, the profits rise more rapidly than the 
yields. 

The following figures are taken from careful 
experiments : 



56 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



Yield of Wheat 


Value 


Cost 


Profit 


10 bushels 


$7.42 


$7.31 


$ .11 


14 bushels 


10.39 


7.43 


2.96 


16 bushels 


11.87 


7.49 


4.38 


20 bushels 


14.84 


7.61 


7.23 



The one additional charge against the higher 
yield is the cost of harvesting. Land rent, tool 
hire, labor costs, preparation of soil, are all the 
same. 

In planning a farm cropping system there 
are certain general principles to keep in mind. 

A regular rotation gives each year the same 
number of acres to each crop, hence provides 
more constant and efficient use for the machin- 
ery. With a fairly constant supply of crops the 
amount of stock which can be profitably kept is 
more easily determined. 

If each field is given the same treatment 
through each series of "years, the supply of 
humus will be added at regular intervals and 
an evenly distributed amount of decaying vege- 
table matter be kept in the soil. Thus every 
part of the farm will be working at efficient 
speed. 



EOTATION OF CROPS 57 

As large an acreage as possible should be 
provided each year for the most profitable crop 
of the region. In Illinois, the maximum acre- 
age possible should be devoted to corn, while in 
New York and New England much attention 
should be devoted to hay, and this regardless of 
the main business of the farms. 

In nine cases out of ten this is simply repeat- 
ing what we have said before — follow your 
neighbors but cut the production costs by every 
practicable method. 



CHAPTER VI 

COMPETITION AND THE LAWS OF PKICES 

Land is practically unlimited, and labor can 
always be bad at a price ; therefore competition 
in farming will always be keen. Crops will be 
produced at cost, giving the farmer but a fair 
return for his work and the use of his capital. 

The city householder pays 12 cents a quart 
for milk for which the dairyman receives but 
6 cents. If all delivery charges could be elimi- 
nated the city breakfast tables w^ould be sup- 
plied with milk at 6, or at the outside 7, cents a 
quart. Raise the price even a quarter of a cent 
and the contributing territory would expand in 
every direction. If the present limit of profit- 
able haul is three miles, the additional price 
would bring milk from the farm four miles from 
the railroad. If the present longest run of a 
milk train is one hundred miles, the additional 

58 



COMPETITION— LAWS OF PEICES 59 

price would send the trains a hundred and 
twenty-five miles after milk. A perfect flood of 
milk would be diverted from the cheese factory 
and the butter maker and flow to the city. 

The problem of the middleman (or more 
properly the middle charges, is a problem for 
the consumer. With the abolition of all un- 
necessary costs between the farm and the kit- 
chen, the whole advantage will ultimately go to 
the consumer. Every time that a housewife 
orders a quart of potatoes over the telephone 
she is paying for her own shiftless method sev- 
eral times the value of the potatoes. 

Competition will always limit the returns 
from any simple conservative operation. If big 
crops, alone, meant success, there w^ould be a 
flood of big crops ; if big farms meant big re- 
turns, small farms would be forced out of busi- 
ness; if a lot of money assured the farmer a 
high rate of return, capital would gravitate to- 
ward the farm. 

The owner of an orange grove was in the 
possession of a fortune until the certainty of 
the profit brought sharp competition. Prices 



60 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

dropped until it was not Avorth while to pick 
and pack the fruit on many groves. To meet 
this condition, growers' organizations were 
formed, which bridged some of the existing gap 
between producer and consumer. Such share of 
the additional price as rightfully belonged to 
the grower went back to him. If this becomes 
excessive, further competition Avill again re- 
duce the price. 

The Oregon apple orchard was reckoned with 
Government bonds for safety and a gold mine 
for yield. The owner sat at ease and his divi- 
dends rolled in upon him. It was too easy; a 
few years ago the apples were sold at less than 
cost. Competition took away the profits and 
put the orchards on the bargain-counter. 

Land, labor, orange groves, apple-trees, cows, 
sheep, can be had in any amount ; but alone they 
do not make success. The supply of brains that 
can organize a profitable farm business is 
strictly limited, and the city can outbid the 
country for them ; for, in the nature of farming, 
it is a small enterprise compared with a city 
business. The farmer needs the type of mind 



COMPETITION— LAWS OF PEICES 61 

that can utilize the by-product to the nth power. 
The inherent weakness in the Western or- 
chard was the one-crop system. The distance to 
market was a further limiting factor, for only 
high-class fruit could be shipped across the 
continent ; and thus we have the orchardist lim- 
ited not alone to one crop but to one grade of 
that crop. Westerners are natural boosters and 
the apple growers proceeded to advertise their 
wares and to create a market for them. With 
fine business they utilized the box pack and set 
a standard in grading apples that put the 
Oregon fruit on a pedestal. It is not especially 
difficult to raise apples. Your neighbors and 
the local experiment station can supply you 
with all needful information. If there is an 
organization for packing and selling the fruit, 
anybody can raise high-grade apples. Inevi- 
tably there was a rush to the apple field. City 
men, without the first idea of agriculture, staked 
out claims in this field of gold. ** Apple land'* 
brought hundreds and even thousands of dollars 
an acre. Competition was unrestricted ; but the 
market for high-grade fruit was limited. When 



62 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

the new orchards came into bearing the slump 
occurred. 

It took less time for the new orchards to grow 
under the impetus of Western soil conditions 
than it took the idea of apple raising to perme- 
ate the consciousness of the Eastern farmer. 
Apple land in New England costs ten dollars an 
acre. There is a market for high-grade fruit 
and a practically unlimited market for the lower 
grades within reach. There is a saving in 
freight of forty-five cents a box and in time of 
^ve days, in favor of the New England grower 
of apples. There is every opportunity for di- 
versity of crops, from the dairy to the raising 
of beans, open to the Eastern man. But it takes 
intelligence to plan a diversified farm. The 
supply of brains is limited. The orchard of the 
general farm in the East is a factor of per- 
manent importance. 

There is no secure ground under the feet of 
the specialist in selling. Special markets are 
desirable, but the possessor of one must keep 
paddling his craft or he will suddenly find him- 
self in the trough of the sea instead of on the 



COMPETITION— LAWS OF PRICES 63 

crest. Other men will find ways to supply the 
demand at cost. One man may possess the 
ability to breed cattle of unusual worth. The 
high price at which he may sell these creatures 
is secured because of his knowledge and the 
money price which it is worth. When other 
men learn the trick the price will come down to 
cost. 

A big business is built up by attention to 
details. A jitney bus, with a five-cent fare, is 
likely to make more than the taxi-cab with a 
dollar ante. The Standard Oil Company prob- 
ably gets the larger part of its revenue from 
once unconsidered trifles. Gasoline was at one 
time a waste product, aniline dyes, paraffin, pe- 
troleum jelly, and a multitude of other minor 
products now swell the receipts. 

When the orchard owner sandwiches the 
work on the trees between the chinks of other 
farm work, has his regular men prune through 
the winter between milking jobs, and arranges 
his crops so that the spraying of the orchard 
comes after the planting of one lot of acres and 
before that of another batch, he is beginning to 



64 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

put the cost of bis apples where it is hopeless 
for the specialized orchardist to compete. 

The Prince of Monaco has found that a cer- 
tain percentage charged against each bet made 
in his palaces will bring him in a fortune. The 
deluded players look only for the big returns 
and, in the aggregate, are sure to lose. The 
wise farmer will work out the best system of 
farming for his particular conditions and will 
stick to it, knowing that in the long run he will 
make more money by so doing than by trying to 
hit the high spots each season. It is not suffi- 
cient that his combination pays him a profit ; it 
must pay him the best profit of any combination 
of crops, to be the right one for him to follow. 

After a year of good prices the newspapers 
use up any amount of perfectly good paper in 
urging the farmers to increase their crops, and 
statisticians begin to figure on the added wealth 
that would come to the State if the farmers 
would only double up on production. Fortu- 
nately it is only the city people who accept this 
gratuitoas advice, and so it doesn't matter. One 
year cabbages may sell for sixty dollars a ton 



COMPETITION— LAWS OP PEICES 65 

and the next be so low that they are left to rot 
in the field. The law of supply and demand is 
not directed from editorial sanctums. 

In 1891 the yield of potatoes was 94 bushels 
per acre and the value per acre was $34.00. In 
1892 the yield was 62 bushels but the value per 
acre rose to $41.00. In 1894 the yield was the 
same as in '92 but the value w^as only $33.00. 
But the next year the yield jumped to 101 
bushels and the price dropped so suddenly that 
they were only worth $27.00, or one-half as 
much, per bushel. 

In the corn belt the oat crop is raised as a 
by-product. It does not pay of itself but it fits 
into the rotation and employs labor at a time 
when it otherwise would be idle. Planting and 
harvesting the crop do not conflict with the care 
of the corn. A farmer can plant all the corn 
that he can cultivate and at the same time have 
many acres of oats. It is not a competitor of 
the corn crop, any more than aniline dye is a 
competitor of kerosene. 

The local market is always the best so far as 
it goes. It is often used by the man with small 



66 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

capital, who retails his stuff until he has accu- 
mulated enough money to go into the bigger 
business necessitating a wholesale outlet. Many 
small towns are short of vegetables and milk. 
A dairy section is the worst place in the world 
to get a household supply of milk. So long as 
competition is avoided the retailer has a tarilf 
wall of two freight charges and two commis- 
sions fighting for him. To ship his stuff to a 
wholesale market he would have to pay one 
freight and one commission. To have stuff 
shipped in from outside, the purchaser would 
have one freight charge and one commission to 
pay. The producer who sells direct saves the 
double charge. The climate of Alaska is not 
adapted to the growing of vegetables, yet the 
raising of garden truck in that land is profit- 
able. A tariff wall of freight charges surrounds 
the place. 

Neither the ebullitions of editors' brains nor 
acts of Congress control prices for farm pro- 
ducts. The farmer must look further than his 
daily paper or the city of Washington for the 
laws which govern his business. 



CHAPTER VII 

FITTING SCHEME TO CONDITIONS 

The man who makes the best financial success 
of his farm is the one who best fits his system 
to his individual surroundings. Rules are made 
for average conditions, but the average is a 
composite of variations. No two farms will 
give the best returns from exactly the same 
system of farming. 

Butter making on the farm is generally a 
losing proposition, but it is easy to imagine 
many conditions under which it would be profit- 
able. The dairyman who uses extra care to 
keep his product clean is throwing away the 
fruit of his labors if he sells his cream where it 
is mixed with unclean supplies and thus brought 
down to the lower grade. The man who pays 
the creamery for making his butter while he 
spends the equivalent amount of time on the 

67 



68 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

road hauling liis product to the creamery or at 
some other unproductive work is giving away 
the price of the work done at the creamery. 

Butter made from clean cream under sanitary 
conditions is worth more than that made from 
the average creamery cream. The farmer who 
sells such butter receives more money for a 
better product and does not simply ask an ad- 
ditional price because the product goes out 
under his name. In this sense he is not seek- 
ing a special market. Whether or not the farm- 
er 's net income will be increased if he spends 
his time in cleanliness in the dairy and in con- 
verting his clean cream into a high-grade fin- 
ished product is purely a matter of the indi- 
vidual conditions. 

The ideal condition, it goes without saying, is 
the proper kind of cooperation between the 
farmers of the neighborhood. 

Climate and soil are the most important fac- 
tors to consider in determining what crops to 
grow. Freight and express rates to the best 
markets have a big finger in the pie; and the 
amount of land available to compete in produc- 



FITTING SCHEME TO CONDITIONS 69 

tion must be considered. But all of these may 
be overcome if the price received for the crop 
pays for the added expense. Tomatoes and 
cucumbers are grown through the winter under 
glass in New York and under the sun in Flor- 
ida. The cost of the greenhouse is offset by the 
transportation charge, and both are paid for by 
the out-of-season price. 

The value of the Connecticut tobacco crop is 
surpassed by only four States in the Union, and 
each of the four has eight times the area of its 
New England competitor. The high quality of 
the Northern grown tobacco, combined with the 
limited area available for the growing of this 
particular grade, permits the expensive culture 
under cloth. 

The Oregon orchardist met his heavy trans- 
portation charge by additional labor in the or- 
chard, which produced the maximum percent- 
age of high-grade fruit. 

If a farm has soil especially adapted to corn 
but is so remote that the freight rate to a corn 
market eats up the profit, this condition can 
sometimes be entirely met by feeding all the 



70 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

grain to live stock on the place. Pigs trans- 
form corn into pork and at the same time con- 
dense it. One pound of pork represents five to 
six pounds of corn. But the freight rate on 
pork is approximately only twice that on corn, 
so the rate per pound of corn as represented in 
pork is reduced to one-third what it would be 
if shipped in its original shape. 

Again, if the corn is sold as grain, the fer- 
tility of the farm will decrease, and the yield 
per acre be less than if it is fed to live stock. 
If a field will produce 30 bushels of corn with- 
out manure and this corn is sold at 70 cents, the 
gross return will be $21.00. But if the same 
field, fertilized by having all the corn fed to live 
stock and the manure returned to the ground, 
can produce 80 bushels,, this corn can be fed to 
live stock at a price of only 40 cents and yet 
the gross return will be $32.00. 

Uncle David Enoch was right when he said, 
**I get the profit in two ways when I feed stock 
— the profit on my stock and the enrichment of 
my farm.'' 

If he thus builds up the fertility of his land 



FITTING SCHEME TO CONDITIONS 71 

the farmer is raising the productivity of his 
farm and by intensive cultivation increasing the 
size of his business. 

The American farmer fits his scheme of farm- 
ing to his conditions by increasing the yield per 
man. The Oriental cultivator of the soil lives 
by forcing the production per acre; for in 
America there is plenty of land and in China 
plenty of labor. It is not uncommon for a farm 
of two acres to support a Chinese family of 
twelve. Certain Western wheat farmers raise 
a crop on one-half of their land each year and 
plow the other half for the succeeding season's 
crop, thus increasing the area which one man 
can cultivate by extending the time of plowing 
over the whole season. The Chinese rice farmer 
raises the young plants in a seed bed, at the 
last moment transplanting them into the fields 
which have meantime been growing other crops. 
He thus adds 30 to 50 days' use of his land at a 
heavy cost of labor. The American is a bull 
on his own labor but a bear on land, while the 
Chinese reverses the attitude. 

Competition and a desire for the ultimate dol- 



72 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

lar of profit have forced business men to rigid 
economy in the details of work. Leaks that 
would ruin the American manufacturer or the 
Oriental farmer creep into every farm business 
in this country. Neither the Standard Oil Com- 
pany nor the Ford Automobile concern could 
prosper if they wasted products as the farmers 
of the corn belt did when they threw away fer- 
tility by burning corn, or if they permitted the 
losses that the average farmer does in his han- 
dling of barn manure. 

It is well to realize the different problems 
confronting the men who would plan his system 
of farming with the same care that the business 
man would use. The Bureau of Farm Man- 
agement, before deciding on the desirability of 
an enterprise, takes into consideration the fol- 
lowing factors : 

(1) Profitableness as determined by general 

and local experience. 

(2) The extent and distribution of the enter- 

prises. This has much to do with the 
stability of the supply and demand. 

(3) Location with reference to markets. 



FITTING SCHEME TO CONDITIONS 73 

(4) Conditions existing in the market cen- 

ters, especially combinations of dealers 
which control prices. 

(5) Soil and climatic conditions. 

(6) Cost of equipment required. 

(7) Amount and character of labor required. 

(8) Seasonal distribution of labor. 

(9) Extent and possible market for the prod- 

uct and the probable effect of a con- 
siderable increase in the supply on 
market prices. 

(10) Effect of the enterprise on the fertility 

of the soil. 
In studying any particular crop the Bureau 
seeks to know: 

(1) Kind and number of operations required 

by the crop. 

(2) Number of men, horses, and machines 

that may or must be used for them. 

(3) Dates between which these operations 

may or must be performed. 

(4) Amount of work each man, horse, or ma- 

chine can do in a day. 



74 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

(5) Proportion of days which will be lost by 
weather, condition of soil, etc. 

With such data at hand it is possible to work 
out a system of cropping which will provide the 
maximum amount of profitable work for men, 
horses, tools, and land for the year. 

There is work for the mathematician in figur- 
ing out the additional cost of a field forty rods 
distant from the barn if the crop is of such a 
nature as to demand four trips between the field 
and barn for a man and team each year. To de- 
termine how much more expensive the distance 
becomes if the exigencies of the crop demand 
sixteen such trips is a problem which may tell 
why farmers keep certain crops near the barn. 

Compared with the selling of grain, the 
agronomist must consider that a small propor- 
tion of the fertility leaves the place when dairy 
products such as butter and cheese are sold. 

The economist can easily find that an inex- 
pensive way to purchase fertilizing material for 
the farm is to buy it in the form of feed stuff. 
Good cattle will live on the purchased food, im- 



FITTING SCHEME TO CONDITIONS 75 

prove the fertility of the farm, and pay the 
farmer for the privilege of doing it. 

No wonder that Horace Greeley said: **By 
and by it will be generally realized that few 
men live or have lived who cannot find scope 
and profitable employment for all their intel- 
lect on a two-hiindred-acre farm/' 

We must remember that ' ' the larger return is 
won by the farmer who is qualitatively more ef- 
ficient because he shows greater skill in per- 
forming his work. He uses better judgment in 
planning his farm operations, in regulating his 
field system, in selecting seeds, in choosing tools 
and machinery with which to do the work, or 
in the breeding and feeding of live stock. ' ' 



CHAPTER VIII 

COOEDINATION OF ENTEEPKISES 

Theke are three hundred and thirteen work 
days in the year. The farmer who wishes to 
succeed must so arrange his work as to put to 
profitable use as many as possible of these 
hours. 

The day laborer counts his time as well spent 
when he works for and receives a wage for 
every day of the year. If he does not work his 
income ceases. 

But the farmer's income apparently suffers 
no interruption if he happens to spend a few 
hours riding around the country in his automo- 
bile or if from some cause beyond his control 
he is compelled to stop work for a time. He 
thinks that his cows work for him, or that his 
fields raise crops without demanding a full re- 
turn in work. It is an insidious line of reason- 

76 



COORDINATION OF ENTERPEISES 77 

ing. Horace Greeley recognized it when lie 
said; ''The one great error that misleads and 
corrupts mankind is the presumption that some- 
thing may be had for nothing ... the law that 
requires each to pay for all he gets and reap 
only where he has sown . . . will not submit to 
defiance or evasion.'' 

The farmer whose system of farming gives 
him profitable work for only half of the year 
will receive pay for only the time spent in toil. 
Not alone is his labor wage reduced thereby, 
but the capital invested in the business is not re- 
turning its full value, for the wheels of the 
farm machine are not revolving. 

The machines in the factory working with 
three shifts of men are never idle. The incom- 
ing shift stands behind the departing one and, 
at a signal, the men change places. The ma- 
chines run steadily on and turn out their special 
products in an unceasing stream. 

The average horse on a Northern farm works 
only three hours a day, and the average farmer 
probably works less than two hundred days a 
year. No factory in the world could survive un- 



78 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

der sucli conditions. The manufacturer often 
makes his profit from a by-product and some- 
times can better afford to make up goods at 
less than cost rather than to close his plant even 
for a few days. 

It was merely applying this principle that led 
the Chief of the Bureau of Farm Management 
to say : * ^ I believe that I can prove that if the 
cotton farmer had half a dozen things on which 
to lose money he would make more profit than 
he does." 

Half pay for lull time brmgs in as much 
money in the course of the year as full pay for 
half time. 

The keeping of cows persists in the face of 
theoretical demonstration that they are kept at 
a loss. If poor cows are kept and the farmer 
has help in the milking he receives half pay for 
full time, as the dairy provides steady work 
during the winter as well as the summer. If 
good cows are kept and the dairyman does not 
have help in the milking he is working produc- 
tively too few hours and is receiving full pay 
for half time. The weakness in the dairy is the 



COOEDINATION OF ENTEEPEISES 79 

limiting factor of tlie few cows which one man 
can milk. A farmer can raise the crops to feed 
twice the herd that he can milk and the care 
of the additional creatures, apart from milking, 
is well within his capacity. As it is, he is kept 
on half-work throughout the year because of 
that one factor. The development of the milk- 
ing machine may revolutionize the dairy. 

While it is very easy to figure out that the 
dairyman does not receive a full Vv^age for his 
time, it is more difficult to plan a system of 
farming which will supply him with work that 
will prove more profitable at the end of the 
year than the day in and day out work in the 
dairy. 

Labor costs more than rent of land; conse- 
quently it is more important to utilize the full 
time of men and horses than it is to keep the 
production of the land on high gear. An inter- 
esting example of the necessity for efficiency in 
labor comes from the cotton and wheat fields. 
Each crop gives a fair division of labor 
throughout the season. 

The cotton farmer, who works without hired 



80 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAKMING 

help, is kept busy from the beginning of the sea- 
son until his crop is harvested. But he is lim- 
ited in the area of cotton which he can grow to 
that which he and his family can pick. A man 
and one mule can plow and cultivate this amount 
of land. The farmer is kept busy all day and 
every day but he is walking behind one mule. 
He is like the dairyman who is not cultivating 
more crops to produce more milk because he 
cannot care for the cows. Both mark time be- 
cause of a single limiting factor. 

The wheat farmer in eastern Washington 
keeps busy from one end of the season to the 
other. The harvesting machine has removed 
the one-time limiting factor of his work. Now, 
one man can care for all the land which he can 
plow during the year. The Washington farmer 
extends this season by raising wheat on but 
half of his land each year. The balance of the 
land is prepared for next season's crop by plow- 
ing part of it in the spring and part in the fall. 
In this way the one-man wheat farm comprises 
320 acres. But this man rides behind a team of 
five or six big horses, in contrast to the one 



COOKDINATION OF ENTERPKISES 81 

mule of his cotton rival. The net income of the 
mule farm is $263.00, while the team of five 
horses brings a net income of $1,563.00. 

When the cotton is picked by a machine of 
efficiency equal to the harvester, the cotton and 
wheat farmers will meet on equal ground. 

A system of cropping that makes admirable 
use of the time of man and horse is the six-year 
rotation: corn two years, wheat two years (fall 
sown), and timothy and clover two years. None 
of these crops competes with the others — that 
is, requires attention at the same time. The 
corn is planted and cultivated before the har- 
vest of the hay begins. The wheat is garnered 
before the corn is ripe. Each follows on the 
heels of the others. This provides daily work 
for the horses from early spring until the 
ground is frozen up in the fall. It obviates the 
hiring of extra teams and neither men nor 
horses are overworked at one season and idle 
at another. 

The limiting factors are (1) the area of corn 
land that one man can prepare for planting, (2) 
the area of corn land which one man can culti- 



82 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

vate, (3) the area of wheat land that one man 
can prepare. (The timothy seed is sown with 
the wheat.) One of the beauties of this rotation 
is that these areas are equal. One man with a 
good team can attend to forty acres of hay, 
forty acres of corn, and forty acres of wheat. 

This system of cropping distributes the work 
and is a good rotation, providing a cultivated 
crop, a small grain and a hay and clover crop. 
Humus, nitrogen, and tilth are contributed to 
the soil. 

Theoretically the use of a four-horse team 
would nearly double the production of the farm- 
er using this rotation. For he could, by driv- 
ing four horses, cover twice the ground in the 
same length of time. Practically, I should like 
the name and address of any man who is thus 
cultivating the two hundred and forty acres. 

These three crops do not interfere, the one 
is not produced at the expense of the other. The 
comparative returns yielded by the three do 
not, therefore, enter into the calculation. If the 
wheat could be replaced by some other crop 
which would be as advantageous in the rotation 



COOKDINATION OF ENTERPRISES 83 

as regards soil fertility and yet not conflict with 
corn or hay in labor while bringing in more 
money, the other crop should be raised. If corn 
could be correspondingly replaced, more profit 
would accrue to the farmer. But because corn 
brings in larger returns than hay is not a rea- 
son for adding more corn land to the rotation. 
The farmer is already producing as much corn 
as he and his team can care for, and to add more 
corn land would add to the labor cost on the 
farm. To produce corn and hay is not to in- 
crease the labor cost, but simply to use labor 
which would otherwise be unproductive. This 
principle of coordination, into which enters di- 
versity, rotation, and, to a degree, size of busi- 
ness, is the vital one for the farmer. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE OPPOKTUNITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 

The best chance for the individual is the cul- 
tivation of personal efficiency. 

We have been studying the general principles 
underlying success in farming. The average 
success is made by following these rules, witlu 
only such changes as the iimnediate conditions 
warrant. The farmer who wishes to increase 
his income had best follow the methods thereby 
suggested but add to his returns by becoming 
more proficient in each controlling factor. 

Of two farmers, side by side with apparently 
the same general equipment of stock and ma- 
chinery, one will grow rich and the other will 
grow poor. It is the personal equation. The 
factor that controls is the man at the head of the 
business. It was this that the Chief of the Bu- 
reau of Farm Management meant when he said : 

84 



OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUAL 85 

^'Tlie man is 75% of the proposition and the 
farm 25%.'' 

Yet the farm income is not increased because 
a successful man is in charge, but because of 
the way he does things. His live stock is better 
than the average, his scheme of farming does 
use to better advantage the time of men and 
teams, his investment is larger than that of his 
unsuccessful competitors. 

The broadest and best opportunity for the 
farmer is that which comes through this per- 
sonal efficiency ; yet there are multitudes of spe- 
cial chances in every community. Usually these 
are in the nature of retail business, such as sup- 
plying the local trade or the individual con- 
sumer, or the production of a superior quality. 

Readers of Country Life may remember the 
story of Mike Trucker, who made $1,500.00 from 
two acres on the shore of the Indian River in 
Florida. Mike let his neighbors ship their pro- 
duce to the Northern markets; he looked after 
the tourist trade right at hand. He received 
fifty cents a quart for his strawberries and fifty 
cents a dozen for eggs right within reach of his 



86 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

own one-horse wagon. He planned his whole 
system of farming so as to supply the winter 
trade within reach of his own circuit. There 
was neither freight nor commission to pay, nor 
uncertainty about markets at the other end of 
the journey, for everything was ordered before 
it was grown. Mike was very optimistic as to 
the opportunity for anybody on the shore of the 
Indian River. He did not realize the limited 
market, nor did he appreciate how much the 
personal equation entered into the market which 
he had established. People had acquired the 
habit of trading with him because he served 
them faithfully and well. The *'good wilP' of 
Mike 's clientele was worth much more than his 
acres. 

Out in the State of Washington there is a 
man who raises eggs. His eggs are good, but 
his reputation is better. He has never sold his 
supply for less than 70 cents a dozen, but that 
is because his trade would rather pay that price 
for goods of the assured quality that come from 
him than buy elsewhere at a less price. He 
probably thinks that there is easy money in 



OPPOETUNITY FOE INDIVIDUAL 87 

raising eggs. And he is right, if a man can ob- 
tain the reputation and market which will com- 
mand such prices. 

In a dairy section, about one farm in fifty can 
profitably be devoted to raising high-grade 
bulls. It is better for the forty-nine other farm- 
ers to pay one of their number to study the 
matter of breeding and become proficient in the 
practice. 

It is often profitable for one farmer in a dairy 
region to make butter. The average farmer 
does not care to add to the complexity of his 
work by churning at home. Many of them do 
not care to use butter that is made under condi- 
tions too frequent in creameries. The profes- 
sional butter-maker can turn out a good product 
if he has the supplies of good cream, but in 
nearly every community are a few farmers who 
do not keep their cream up to the standard of 
cleanliness, and this unclean supply is mixed 
with the good, thus bringing down the quality 
of the mass. Again, it often happens that the 
little village, set within the midst of dairy 
farms, is almost without milk for the house- 



88 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

holder, for the farmers sell their supplies at 
wholesale. 

Each of these examples is of retail business ; 
and it is true in practice that the average re- 
tailer, as soon as he has accumulated sufficient 
capital through retailing, prefers to embark 
upon the larger business requiring a wholesale 
outlet. It is thus often used as a means to ac- 
quire capital. But it is financially successful or 
it could not be used as a stepping-stone. 

A well-known tobacco farmer in Connecticut 
has made a reputation for the high grade of his 
product and he has already sold next year's 
crop for $75,000.00 But he knows that when the 
buyer lights a bit of the tobacco leaf, if any ash 
is left or it does not burn crisply, the buyer will 
not take the wrapper at any price. He has 
learned how to produce this quality and he 
grows only that particular grade of stuif. His 
opportunity is built on land peculiarly adapted 
to this tobacco, in the first place ; but knowledge 
and determination are contributing factors, for 
without these his land would not give him the 
high-grade tobacco. 



OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUAL 89 

A certain chicken farmer in New Hampsliire 
buys the unfinished fowl of his neighbors, fat- 
tens them, and ships them to market. He fig- 
ures his profit at 55% on the operation. He is 
a specialist and reaps the reward of knowledge 
properly applied. This same farmer sold his 
fowl for 24 cents in the local market while he 
was buying from his neighbors for 14 cents. 
Probably the very housewives who were selling 
him unfattened chickens were buying back their 
own fowls after they had been fattened for a 
fortnight. Imagine the Standard Oil Company 
permitting a leak like this ! 

The story of a New England orchard in the 
making illustrates several of the points which 
we have discussed. The orchard was too large 
for one man and not large enough for two. It 
needed a team of horses but could not keep them 
busy. It took several years for these facts to 
reach the consciousness of the new city owner. 
This man had read that ^^cows did not pay,'' 
and so banished them from his calculations, un- 
til two or three winters of idleness forced the 
matter upon his consideration. Wlien he fig- 



90 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

ured upon his fertilizer bills, he forgot to look 
askance at cows. Idle time in the winter, and a 
big bill for chemicals, began to make a differ- 
ence in the calculations. He learned that fertil- 
ity can be more cheaply purchased in the form 
of feed than otherwise, and that half-pay for 
winter time is much better than no-pay. He be- 
gan to figure on using the time of men and 
teams. The size of the orchard was increased 
(for the future) by the planting of more trees. 
But even this left big loop-holes in the time ac- 
count. So he added small fruits, strawberries, 
blackberries, raspberries, currants, and goose- 
berries. To keep the horses at work he plowed 
more land and soon began raising various crops, 
such as potatoes, beans, wheat, corn, etc. He 
started a nursery, for the sake of raising his 
own young trees, and to have some for sale. 

And just as he diversified in his crops, so he 
divided his risks in the market. Other orchard- 
ists in the State shipped by wholesale to the 
glutted Boston market, leaving a vacuum be- 
hind them. Our friend stepped into the breach 
and kept many of his apples at home. Why 



OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUAL 91 

ship to Boston when a higher price could be ob- 
tained within a few miles of the orchard 1 Why 
ship second quality fruit to a market good only 
for first grade, and why sell fancy apples to a 
trade that wanted only sound number twos? 
Why sell his cream to a creamery which dumped 
it in with all the rest and paid him only the 
price for inferior stuff? Why present the 
creamery with the 17% overrun while he and 
his man sat around the stove? 

That city dreamer knew more about finding 
markets than he did about swinging a scythe. 
Finally it got pounded into his head that the 
way to make money was to do the job that he 
knew how to do better than the other fellow, and 
leave to the other fellow that man's specialty. 

To-day he is supplying the local trade with 
barreled apples, the city consumer trade with 
boxed fruit, and the wholesale firm with car- 
lots. His pickers begin with the strawberry 
crop, follow on to the raspberries, currants, 
blackberries, and gooseberries. His trade begins 
to look for the arrival of his strawberries, and 
thereafter takes the following crops as a mat- 



92 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

ter of course. The berries do not supply full 
loads, so cases of eggs are used to fill in the 
chinks. Chickens that may not pay as a single 
crop, pay with him, because they fit into the 
scheme of time and delivery loads. With the 
need for speed and distance in delivering, the 
horses are kept on the farm and a light truck 
eats up the miles and enlarges the circle of ter- 
ritory over which regular deliveries are made. 

He found local firms buying potatoes from 
other States and paying the freight to have 
them shipped in. And he stepped in to help 
supply the local needs. Freight and commis- 
sion charges acted as a tariff wall to protect his 
infant industry. 

Mike Trucker did the same thing in Florida. 
Reginald Cityman is doing it in New England. 
Thousands of other men are doing it all over 
the land. The opportunity for the individual 
is to fit his scheme of farming to the condi- 
tions in which he finds himself. 



CHAPTER X 

LIVE STOCK ON THE FAKM 

Animals are farm machines. They convert 
the raw materials of the place into manufac- 
tured products. Hay, straw, grain and other 
feeds are converted and condensed into beef, 
mutton, milk, butter, eggs, etc. Transportation 
charges are cut and distant markets thereby 
made available. 

The manufacturer must watch the efficiency 
of his machinery and when a given type proves 
a losing proposition it must go to the scrap- 
heap and be replaced by a better type. Most 
farms have animals that belong in the scrap- 
heap, and few dairy herds are without cows that 
are kept at a loss. 

There are certain risks in live-stock farming. 
Disease may destroy the capital invested in ani- 
mals; tuberculosis may wipe out a dairy; chol- 

93 



94 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

era may kill off a drove of hogs ; liver-rot may 
devastate a flock of sheep. Scarcity of food 
may put the price of hay and grain at a figure 
that spells loss; for live stock cannot be held 
indefinitely but must be sold as soon as they 
are finished or they will eat their heads off. 

But live stock is needed on the business farm 
to provide continuous work for the men, to con- 
vert low-grade food-stuffs into high-grade, and 
to keep up the fertility of the land in as eco- 
nomical a manner as possible. 

Animals require more care in winter than in 
summer. The winter care comes at a time when 
the farmer would not otherwise be employed 
and therefore may be considered as cheap la- 
bor. Much of the summer *' chore'' time comes 
before and after regular hours of work in cul- 
tivating and harvesting the crops and so sum- 
mer care of the dairy does not come into direct 
competition with labor done within the ordinary 
hours of the day. 

Cows will eat hay that would not command 
a market price and convert it into milk and 
cream ; sheep will clean up what the cows leave ; 



LIVE STOCK ON THE FAEM 95 

goats will live on brush; while animals of all 
sorts will live on pasture land that could not 
profitably be used in any other way. Pigs and 
chickens, if permitted to run at large, will 
gather much of their living and act as scaven- 
gers in doing it. Grasshoppers, bugs, windfall 
fruit, weeds, and deleterious seeds will be trans- 
formed into eggs, broilers, and pork. Skim-milk 
will be converted by the same means into sala- 
ble products. 

The hens that are fed on these weeds, wastes, 
and table scraps are looked after by the women 
and children of the farm. Their food costs lit- 
tle or nothing and the care is by unpaid labor. 
Eggs raised under such a schedule of small cost 
are sold at a low price ; and when one considers 
that the main supply of eggs of the country 
comes from these small farm flocks the difficulty 
of the competition meeting the specialized egg 
farm is apparent. The specialist must meet it 
by improved breeds, systems of forcing egg- 
laying, and higher-grade products. Fortunate- 
ly for him, the owners of a few hens cannot af- 



96 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

ford to sliip eggs often enougli to meet the re- 
quirements of the ^' extra fancy'' grades. 

It is evident that live stock, under such con- 
ditions, can be produced at a small margin of 
profit; and it is nearly as difficult for the spe- 
cialist in beef, pork, or dairy products to com- 
pete with the main supply of the country as it 
would be for the manufacturer to* attempt to 
provide gasoline without taking into account the 
products that come off in the same distillation. 
The farmer who is figuring on the cost of fer- 
tilizing his land can study with profit the fol- 
lowing values, worked on an ante-bellum scale 
of prices for chemicals. 

The value of the fertilizing constituents of 
the manure made in a year per thousand pounds 
of live weight, if purchased, would be as fol- 
lows : 

Cow, $31.20 

Sheep, $36.84 

Pig, $64.48 

Fowls, $54.52 

If the farmer is wondering whether it is bet- 
ter to sell his corn as grain, or convert it into 



LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM 97 

pork, the matter of $64.48 for each half -ton of 
pork (the equivalent of 6,000 pounds of corn) is 
a decided factor. 

When he sells a ton of timothy hay he sells 
$6.00 worth of manure, but if he sells a ton of 
pigs he takes away only $8.17 worth of fertility. 
Thus, if he sells the hay for $15.00, he receives 
$9.00 for his crop and $6.00 for his capital, as 
represented in farm fertility. If he obtains 6 
cents for his pigs, there is only $8.00 to be sub- 
tracted from the $120.00 which comes to him. 

The cost in farm fertility to be charged up 
against the capital account on a 160-acre farm 
runs as follows for three systems of farming : 

Nitrogen Phosphoric 





In Lbs. 


Acid. 


Potas 


All-grain farm . 


. 5,600 


2,500 


4,200 


Dairy farm . 


800 


175 


85 


Live stock 


900 


150 


60 



G. F. "Warren says: *' There is no merit or 
demerit in selling any particular crop. If one 
sells everything that grows, including the straw 



98 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

and hay, and gives no attention to the soil, he is 
sure to get into trouble sooner or later. But 
there are many ways of keeping up fertility. 
The question is which way pays best.'' 

In our study of the business of farming this 
is the one point for us to consider — ' * which way 
pays best." Not alone in the immediate pres- 
ent, but taking account of the future and care- 
fully balancing the demands of to-day and to- 
morrow. 

As a rule it may be stated that the sale of 
crops is more directly profitable than the using 
of them for feed on the place. In part this is 
because one sells the higher-grade stuff and in 
part because one draws on the bank account in 
farm fertilty when selling crops instead of dis- 
posing of animal products. 

If the farmer raises -only live stock, his ani- 
mals are competing with those fed only on low- 
grade feeds, while his consume both grades. If 
he raises only crops, he is throwing away the 
low-grade produce, which might be producing 
low-cost live stock. A proper balancing of live 
stock and crops is the proper farm management. 



LIVE STOCK ON THE FAEM 99 

The specialist makes money, but lie would make 
more if lie could combine successfully the two 
types of farming. 

The deduction from the foregoing statements 
is quite plain that, under average conditions, 
enough live stock should be kept to utilize the 
low-grade products of the farm. By transform- 
ing these into fertility for the fields, we are 
raising the grade of our products. Moreover, in 
many cases, the cost of harvesting may be wiped 
out by turning the animals into the fields to har- 
vest their own food. If the cost of harvesting a 
bushel of corn is ten cents, and a pig turned into 
the corn-field gathers the ear for himself, he 
should be credited with the value of the labor 
which he thus performs, in casting up the ac- 
counts of the farm. 

Investigation has shown that when produc- 
tion of crops has reached about 150% of the 
average yield the curve of profit begins to go 
down. No top has been found to animal pro- 
duction. The average hen lays, perhaps, 100 
eggs per year. The 200-egg hen does not cost 
twice as much in feed and care as her ordinary 



100 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

sister, and she yields a correspondingly greater 
profit. The 300-egg hen will not cost 50% more 
to keep than the producer of 200 eggs. The cow 
that fills the pail with rich milk costs more to 
feed than the poor type which gives only half 
as much, but the cost is not in proportion to the 
additional yield. The calf from the poor cow 
takes nearly as much food to grow as the young- 
ster raised by the good cow, but it is sold for 
$5.00 as against a price in proportion to its 
mother's worth on the part of the pedigreed 
calf. 

The dairy farm which is large enough so that 
the manager can take the time to properly test 
the product of each cow has an advantage over 
the small farm where a rush of work prevents 
this keeping of records. No man on earth can 
tell accurately the amount or quality of the 
yield of any cow by simple inspection. Every 
dairjonan knows which are his best cows, but he 
often knows wrong, unless the milk is weighed 
every day and the Babcock tester used for the 
butter-fat content. The least prepossessing 
cow in my own herd gives a 7.40% butter-fat 



LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM 101 

test. In the rush of summer work it is impossi- 
ble to take the time to test the cows as often as 
it should be done, and we compromise by an 
occasional test, together with a daily weighing 
of the milk. The specialist will arrange his time 
so as to make the opportunity. 

The farmer who raises pure-bred stock has a 
different proposition from the man who keeps 
scrub cattle. It has been carefully figured out 
that a $40.00 cow depreciates 4% each year, 
while the $200.00 cow loses value at the rate of 
12%. This, plus 6% interest on the cost, makes 
the $40.00 cow worth $36.00 at the end of the 
year, while the $200.00 cow has come down to 
$164.00. To compensate for her increased cost, 
the higher-grade cow must make a net return of 
more than $32.00 over that of her $40.00 com- 
petitor. 

The man with small capital can best begin 
with low-cost cows and improve his herd by 
means of a good sire. Incidentally it may be 
remarked that he can improve the offspring 
from low-priced registered stock as rapidly as 



102 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

he can from grades, and in the end he has good- 
producing pure-breds, instead of simple good- 
producers. The additional value has come with- 
out additional cost. 



CHAPTER XI 



THE FAEM AS A HOME 



Good farming is a means to an end. If suc- 
cess is sought simply to gratify personal ambi- 
tion, to supply a love of ostentation, or to give 
luxurious ease, the fruit of victory will turn to 
ashes. 

Good farming should mean a good home, a 
lasting home, founded upon a rock, not resting 
upon the shifting sand. Agriculture is a first 
principle; on it rests the life and happiness of 
mankind ; it is the greatest and most important 
of extractive industries, and upon these indus- 
tries depend every method of getting a living. 
The manufacturer would have nothing to manu- 
facture if farmers, miners, lumberman, and fish- 
ermen ceased to supply him with raw materials. 
The merchant would have nothing to sell if the 
manufacturer made nothing for him; and the 

103 



104 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

transportation companies would be idle if there 
was nothing to ship. Strength comes from the 
environment ; and a successful farmer is strong 
and capable : his strength is refreshed because 
he is dealing with the elemental facts of life. 

A good home means a good family; and the 
highest ambition which any man can hold is to 
be the head of a family, strong in mind and body 
and righteous in deeds. To provide an estate 
that will support such a family and develop in 
them these qualities is a goal to appeal to the 
best of us. The writers who urge us to go to 
the farm because of the beauty of the country or 
the peace of the life on the land miss the factor 
that makes the farmer worth while. It is the 
discipline of the farm, the insistence of its du- 
ties, the certainties of its penalties, and the 
great big fact that you are working with nature 
in the things that make the world go, that make 
the farmer a broad, self-reliant, forceful indi- 
vidual. 

Work is happiness and idleness akin to mis- 
ery. There are more children who need to be 
set to work than there are who need to be 



THE FARM AS A HOME 105 

protected by child labor laws. The city child 
grows up in idleness. Out of school hours there 
is nothing for him to do except to spend the 
hours in play. The child on the farm, as soon 
as he can walk, is given some light, simple task 
to perform. Perhaps it is the wood box that he 
fills for his mother, or the potatoes that the girl 
pares for dinner. As they grow older the boy 
can feed the calf and the girl the chickens. Both 
chores are necessary and insistent. Because the 
boy wishes to play is no reason why the calf can 
go hungry. He learns early in the game that 
life is real and earnest. And when he goes to 
the city the urban-raised youth has small chance 
against him in the battle of life. 

Enthusiasm is the breath of life, and a com- 
mon enthusiasm the strength of a nation. Bet- 
ter war, with its united patriotism, than the 
crumbling decay of individual, egotistical lux- 
uriousness of living. 

On a farm the family work together. In the 
city it makes little difference to the rest of the 
family whether the father is a broker, a butcher, 
or a candlestick maker. His place in the econ- 



106 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

omy of the household is to provide the money 
to buy the things needed by it. There is no fur- 
ther community of interest ; matters pertaining 
to business policy are not discussed, and the 
children do not know whether stocks are boom- 
ing, veal is down, or the market for the silver- 
smith at low ebb. The city dweller is amused 
because the countryman talks crops and weather 
signs, and he smiles in a superior sort of fash- 
ion, as if these subjects were inconsequential. 
Wall Street quotations are made by crops and 
weather. The broker is dealing with the froth 
of the game, while the farmer is on the ground 
floor making the cake with which the former 
plays. The philosopher who considers that the 
greatest duty of man is to subdue the earth and 
to make it a better place on which to live is likely 
to give the farmer a pass to heaven. 

The boy on the farm has the inestimable ad- 
vantage of working side by side with his father. 
From his early years he has been accustomed 
to regular work — not a task evidently made for 
him to mark time over, but one which is part of 
the work of the place, one that contributes to 



THE FAEM AS A HOME 107 

the support of the family, and on the well-doing 
of which rests in some measure the success of 
the farm. There is thus developed in the boy 
a feeling of responsibility and self-reliance that 
will equip him for his future life as armor 
equipped the knight of old. He is early taken 
into the family discussions of ways and means. 
Not alone are the matters of spending money 
brought before the family council, but also those 
concerned with making it, the selling to the best 
advantage. The boy learns the value of money 
and the ways in which it can be made. He does 
not simply draw an allowance and concern him- 
self only with making the amount on hand last 
over until next pay day. 

The association with life, in the growing crops 
and the breeding of live stock, gets the boy in 
touch with the revolving wheels of this old earth 
of ours and broadens his foundation until he is 
not like a reed in the wind, bending before every 
blast. He understands the comparative impor- 
tance of things and is not so likely to be carried 
away by false idols. 

The farm family is more stable than that of 



108 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

the city. The work on the farm is not subject 
to such sudden ups and downs as is that in the 
city. A farmer learns patience and faith, for he 
does little that returns to him ^ Ho-morrow. ^ ' 
His fields are improved by rotations that need 
five years to cover the first round and two cir- 
cuits to show results ; his stock is improved by 
the slow process of replacement, daughters and 
daughters' daughters, unto the fifth and sixth 
generation, in his dairy. The city man puts his 
accumulation in the bank in the form of money 
or bonds, and sometimes in additional plant 
which usually is readily salable ; but the farmer 
stows away much of his growing capital in the 
added fertility of the farm, the better live stock, 
and the more successful farm management. 

Financial panics have less effect upon farm- 
ers than upon any other class of business men. 
Food is always a necessity; wars may devastate 
or panics bankrupt the nation, but the people 
must continue to eat. Markets may be cur- 
tailed and the demand for quality lowered, but 
food will always be needed. The farmer will 
ever have a sale for his produce. 



THE FAEM AS A HOME 109 

The conditions of family life on the farm 
make for stability. In the city the unmarried 
man or woman is under no disadvantage in a 
business sense because unmarried. But on the 
farm the household works together and the unit 
in the business is neither the man nor the 
woman, but the whole family. The farmer must 
have a wife, and the woman cannot live alone. 
This community of interest, this need for each 
other, is the surest bond to hold the family to- 
gether. It makes for earlier marriage and it 
makes for more care in the selection of part- 
ners. In the city, the man may wish simply a 
pretty face at the other end of the table, or a 
showy partner to exhibit at the opera or the 
exclusive ball, but in the country the man must 
have a worthy mate. The mother of his chil- 
dren must be of the best available type. 

^'No pure form of social or domestic life, no 
high type of morality, has ever been developed 
among any people except where it was organ- 
ized around some kind of productive work. The 
ideal of production for a common family pur- 
pose ... of building a family and perpetuat- 



110 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

ing a prosperous, productive family estate in- 
stead of subtracting from the dignity of family 
life, is really one of the greatest factors in add- 
ing dignity to it.'' 

Farmers, as a class, are independent because 
they are so largely self-employed. Agriculture 
is, and always will be, largely made up of small 
units. For the high-spirited, independent man 
this will always be a controlling condition. 
Farming never will pay speculative returns, and 
the man who prefers to play with money had 
best keep to the city. The weak and very strong 
had best go to the city, for the farm is a place 
for individual effort. The workman must over- 
see himself, must supply his own initiative, and 
must stick to his job until it is finished. The 
man who finds it a trouble to decide what to do 
next will accomplish more and be better paid for 
it if he works under the eye of a foreman. The 
man of great executive ability will find his place 
in directing the business which can employ a 
large number of men. The farmer rarely can 
find employment for as many as half a dozen 
men. He must rely largely on his own efforts ; 



THE FAEM AS A HOME 111 

he must be self-reliant, adaptable, a naturalist, 
a business man, an expert on feeding and breed- 
ing, an agriculturalist, and a man always ready 
to change his policy to suit changing conditions. 
The farmer is a constructive worker. His 
livelihood comes from making the land produce ; 
he adds to the wealth of the world. His moral 
fiber is thereby strengthened. Too often the 
city man makes his living out of other people. 
Oratory, a well-groomed appearance, and a con- 
vincing manner are his stock in trade and by 
them he induces others to part with their dol- 
lars. '^Instead of laboring to make two blades 
of grass grow where one had grown before, 
their business is to make two dollars emerge 
from other people's pockets where one had 
emerged before.'' A destructive business is 
necessarily weakening to moral stamina, for 
man is subject to his environment. 

These moral qualities are the fundamentals 
of civilization. Intellectual achievements can 
be freely borrowed, agricultural machinery may 
be cheaply purchased, and social efficiency can 
be quickly developed by an acute monarchical 



112 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

government. Morality is of a slower growth, 
and the nation which becomes efficient at the ex- 
pense of morality is in danger of falling into the 
abyss. From the days of mythology the touch 
of the soil has been recognized as the vital fac- 
tor in the advancement of the world. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS ON FARM MANAGE- 
MENT 

Boss, Andrew — Fann management: Chicago, N. Y. Lyons 

& Carnahan, 1914. $0.90. 
Hunt, T. F. — How to choose a farm: N. Y. Maemillan 

Co. 1906. $1.75. 
Hunt, T. F. — The young- farmer; some things he should 

know: N. Y. Orange Judd Co. 1912. $1.50, 
Warren, G. F. — Fann management: N. Y. Maemillan 

Co. 1913. $1.75. 

STATE AND STATION PUBLICATIONS RELATING 
TO FARM MANAGEMENT 

Anderson, A. C. & Riddell, F. T. — Studies in the cost of 

market milk production: Michigan Agi\ Exp. Sta. 

Bui. 172. 1917. 
App^ Frank — Farm profits and factors influencing farm 

profits on 370 potato farms in Monmouth County, 

New Jersey: New Jersey Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 294. 

Apr., 1916. 
Boss, Andrew, Peck, F. W., and Cooper, T. P.— Labor 

requirements of livestock: Minnesota Agr. Exp. Sta. 

Bui. 161. Aug., 1916. 

115 



116 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 

BuRRiTT, M. C. — The income of 178 New York farms: 
New York Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Biil. 271. Dec, 
1909. 

Gates, J. S. — Farm management : its applications to south- 
ern New England conditions: Massachusetts State 
Bd. Agr. Ann. Rpt. 1915, pt. 2, p. 58-67. 1916. 

Cooper, T. P., Peck, F. W., and Boss, Andrew — Labor 
requirements of crop production : Minn. Agr. Exp. 
Sta. Bui. 157. March, 1916. 

Filley, H. C. — Fann management studies in eastern Ne- 
braska: Nebraska Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 157. Oct., 
1916. 

GoDDARD, L. H. — Labor cost of producing corn in Ohio: 
Ohio Agi'. Exp. Sta. Bui. 266. Dec, 1913. 

Johnson, 0. M., and Dadisman, A. J. — An agricultural 
survey of Brooke County: West Virginia Agr. Exp. 
Sta. Bui. 153. 1915. 

Johnson, 0. R. — The distribution of farm labor: Missouri 
Agr. Exp. Sta. Research Bui. 6, p. 53-88, fig. 5. Feb., 
1913. 

Ladd, C. E. — Cost accounts on some New York farms: N. 
Y. Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 377. June, 1916. 

Peck, F. W. — Cost of producing Minnesota farm crops, 
1908-1912: Minnesota AgT. Exp. Sta. Bui. 145. Dec, 
1914. 

Thompson, A. L. — Cost of producing milk on 174 farms 
in Delaware County, New York: N. Y. Cornell Agr. 
Exp. Sta. Bui. 364. Oct., 1915. 

Warren, G. F., and others — An agricultural survey : Town- 
ships of Ithaca, Danby and Lansing, Thompkins Coun- 
ty, New York: N. Y. Cornell Agr.^Exp. Sta. Bui. 295. 
March, 1911. 

Warren, G. F. — Agricultural surveys — N. Y. Cornell Agr. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 117 

Exp. Sta. Bui. 344. Apr., 1914. (Pub. also as Presi- 
dent's address, in Proc. Amer. Fanu Management 
Assoc, 1913, p. 9-26.) 

"Warren, G. F. — Cost accounting on farms: Xew York 
Dept. Agr. Bui. 35, p. 921-926, 1912. 

Warrex^ G. F. — CrojD yields and prices, and our future 
food supply: N. Y. Cornell AgT. Exp. Sta. Bui. 341. 
Feb., 1914." 

Warren, G. F., and Livermore, K. C. — Notes from the ag- 
ricultural survey of Tompkins County: N. Y. Cor- 
nell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 302. June, 1911. 

Warren^ G. F. — Some important factors for success in 
general and dairy farming: N. Y. Cornell Agr. Exp. 
Sta. Bui. 349. July, 19M. 

Warren, G. F. — Some principles of farm management : In 
New Jersey State Bd. Agr. Rpt., 39tb, p. 99-106, 1911. 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICUL- 
TURE RELATING TO FARM MANAGEMENT 

Arnold_, J. H. — Crew work, costs, and returns in commer- 
cial orcharding in West Virginia : Dept. Bui. 29, 1913. 

Arnold, J. H. — How a city family managed a farm : Far- 
mers' Bui. 432. 1911. 

Ball, J. S. — Waste land and wasted land on farms: Far- 
mers' Bui. 745. 1916. 

Bennett, C. M., and Cooper, M. 0. — The cost of raising 
a dairy cow: Dept. Bui. 49. 1914. 

Burritt, M. C. — A successful New York farm : Fanners' 
Bui. 454. 1911. 

Gates, H. R. — Farm practice in the cultivation of corn: 
Dept. Bui. 330. 1916. 



118 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 

Cotton^ J. S., and Ward^ W. F. — Economical cattle feed- 
ing in the corn belt: Farmers' Bill. 588. 1914. 

Cotton. J. S., and others. — Meat situation in the United 
States. Pt. III. Methods and cost of growing beef 
cattle in the corn belt states: Dept. Report 111. 

Dodge, L. G. — Cropping systems for New England dairy 
farms: Fanners' Bui. 337. 1908. 

DoDGE_, L. G. — Farm management in northern potato-grow- 
ing sections: Farmers' Bui. 365. 1909. 

Drake, J. A. — A corn-belt farming system which saves 
harvest labor by hogging down crops: Farmers' Bui. 
814. 1914. 

FuNK_, W. C. — Value to farm families of food, fuel, and 
use of house: Dept. Bui. 410. 1916. 

Funk, W. C. — What the farm contributes directly to the 
farmer's li\dng: Farmers' Bui. 635. 1914. 

GoLDENV^EiSER, E. A. — The farmer's income: Farmers' 
Bui. 746. 1916. 

Hays, W. M. and Parker, E. C. — The cost of producing 
farm products: Bureau of Statistics Bui. 48. 1906. 
(Pub. also as Minnesota AgT. Exp. Sta. Bui. 97.) 

Humphrey, H. N. — Cost of fencing farms in the North 
Central states : Dept. Bui. 321. 1916. 

Humphrey, H. N. — Labor requirements of dairy farms as 
influenced by milking machines: Dept. Bui. 423. 
1916. 

Ladd, C. E. — A system of f aiTQ cost accounting : Farmers' 
Bui. 572. 1914. 

McDov^ELL, J. C. — Influence of age on the value of dairy 
cows and farm work horses: Dept. Bui. 413. 1916. 

Miller, G. H. — Operating costs of a well-established New 
York apple orchard: Dept. Bui. 130. 1914. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 119 

MowRY, H. H. — Machinery cost of farai operations in 
western New York : Dept. Bui. 338. 1916. 

MowRY, H. H. — The normal clay's work of farm imple- 
ments, workmen, and crews in Avestern New York: 
Dept. Bui. 412. 1916. 

Parker, E. C, and Cooper, T. P. — The cost of producing 
Minnesota farm products, 1902-1907 : Bureau of Sta- 
tistics Bui. 73. (Pub. also as Minnesota Agr. Exp. 
Sta. Bui. 117.) 

Spillman, W. J. — Factors of efficiency in farming: In 
U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 1913, p. 93-108. 

Spillman, W. J., Dixon, H. M., and Billings, G. A.— 
Farm management practice of Chester County, Pa.: 
Dept. Bui. 341. 1916. 

Spillman, W. J. — Miscellaneous papers: The farmer's 
income: Bureau Plant Indus. Circ. 132. 1913. 

SpiLL3iiAN, W. J. — A successful hog and seed-corn farm: 
Famiers' Bui. 272. 1906. 

Spillman, W. J. — A successful poultry and dairy farm: 
Farmers' Bui. 355. 1909. 

Thomson, E. H. — Agricultural survey of four townships 
in southern New Hampshire: Bureau Plant Indus. 
Circ. 75. 1911. 

Thomson, E. H. — Farm bookkeeping: Farmers' Bui. 511. 
1912. 

Thomson, E. H., and Dixon, H. M.— A fann-management 
survey of three representative areas in Indiana, Illi- 
nois and Iowa. Dept. Bui. 41. 1914. 

Thomson, E. H., and Dixon, H. M.— A method of analyz- 
ing the farm business: Farmers' Bui. 661. 1915. 

Thomson, E. H., and Dixon, H. M.— Profits in farming on 
irrigated areas in Utah Lake Valley : Dept. Bui. 117. 
1914. 



120 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAKMING 

TuENER, H. A. — Systems of renting truck fanus in south- 
western New Jersey: Dept. Bui. 411. 1916. 

PUBLICATIONS ISSUED SINCE OCTOBER 21, 1916 
DEPARTMENT BULLETINS 

No. 528. — Seasonable distribution of farm labor in Ches- 
ter County, Pa. By George A. Billings. 1917. 
10c. 
560. — Cost of keeping farm horses and cost of horse 
labor. By M. R. Cooper. 1917. 5c. 

FARMERS' BULLETINS 

No. 782. — The use of a diary for farm accounts. By E. H. 

Thomson. 1917. 5c. 
816. — Minor articles of farm equipment. By H. N. 

Humphrey and A. P. Yerkes. 1917. 5c. 
838. — Harvesting hay with the sweep-rake. By A. P. 

Yerkes and H. B. McClure. 1917. 5c. 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY CIRCULARS 

No. 67.^-Measuring hay in ricks or stacks. By H. B. 
McClure and W. J. Spillman. 1916. 

YEARBOOK SEPARATES 

No. 715. — Fann tenantry in the United States. By W. J. 
Spillman and E. A. Goldenweiser. 1917. 



